Two airline companies in Shanghai have arranged cross-Strait charter flights for the Dragon Boat Festival which falls on June 19 this year.

 

China Eastern Airlines Co. Ltd and Shanghai Airlines Co. Ltd each have a round-trip flight on June 15 and 19 between Shanghai and Taipei.

 

China Southern Airlines have also scheduled round-trip charter flights from Guangzhou to Taipei for June 16 and 21.

 

Charter flights from Xiamen to Taipei were also set for June 15 and 19.

 

The Dragon Boat Festival, which falls on the fifth day of fifth month of the Chinese lunar calendar, is said to be in memory of a patriotic Chinese poet who drowned over 2,000 years ago.

 

The first non-stop charter flights across the Taiwan Strait were launched during the Chinese Lunar New Year in 2005. Prior to those, there were no direct air links across the Taiwan Strait for more than five decades.

 

(Xinhua News Agency May 12, 2007)