CRI听力：Cross-Straits Weekend Chartered Flights Launched

Friday marks the start of weekend chartered flights across the Taiwan Straits. A total of 760 mainland tourists taking flights from the Chinese mainland have embarked on an uNPRecedented journey to Taiwan.

Our reporter Xu Weiyi has the details.

Reporter:

In Beijing, the first weekend chartered flight took off Friday morning after a brief launching ceremony. The inaugural tour group comprises of about 350 passengers, including tourists, reporters, and a tourism communication delegation headed by Shao Qiwei, chairman of the Chinese mainland's Cross-Straits Tourism Communication Association.

Shao Qiwei is quite familiar with Taiwan's tourist destinations.(www.hxen.net)

"Taiwan boasts rich tourist resources, including natural scenic spots and cultural landscapes. Local residents in Taiwan are also very hospital. Now, cross-Straits tourism will further enhance friendship between people on both sides."

Shao Qiwei says that the tourism communication delegation will explore new tourist destinations in Taiwan, as well as evaluate the service quality of local restaurants and hotels.

In Nanjing's Lukou International airport, Cheng Yunlin, chief of Chinese mainland's Association for Relations across the Taiwan Straits, says that Friday marked a new beginning in the history of cross-strait exchanges.

"It is a remarkable day today. We've achieved new progress in the development of cross-straits relationship. The chartered weekend flights may seem a tiny step at present, but it could be a big step to advance cross-straits development in the long run."

Meanwhile, the first weekend chartered flight from Taiwan has also arrived in east China's Shanghai municipality on Friday morning.

It has only been three weeks since Chinese mainland's Association for Relations across the Strait and the Taiwan-based Straits Exchange Foundation signed an agreement last month for cross-Strait weekend charted flights and mainland tourists' traveling to Taiwan .

Xu Weiyi, CRI news.