A total of 165 Taiwan tourists stranded by Monday's quake in Sichuan Province flew home Friday evening from Chongqing Municipality.

An aircraft of Taiwan's TransAsia Airways arrived at Chongqing Jiangbei International Airport at 6:20 p.m. Friday and departed at 7:50 p.m. with the tourists aboard. It was expected to reach Taipei at 10:30 p.m.

One tourist said a bus carrying 21 members of his tour group was hit by a large rock in Jiuzhaigou, a scenic site in Sichuan when the 7.8 magnitude quake struck on Monday afternoon.

They were stranded for 12 hours and then managed to reach the Huanglong Airport in Jiuzhaigou.

"We arrived at Jiuzhaigou on Sunday," said another Taiwan tourist. "It is a pity that we had not completed our holiday. We will come back definitely."

Chen Jun, Jiangbei airport disaster relief emergency team deputy chief, said Taiwan's China Airlines and EVA Air would each have a direct flight to Chongqing.

The China Airlines flight would arrive in Chongqing at 1:35 a.m. Saturday and leave 90 minutes later. The EVA Air flight will arrive late on Friday and leave at 2 a.m. Saturday.

The three flights would carry about 700 Taiwan tourists home.

The tourists were mainly stranded in Jiuzhaigou, a scenic spot of Sichuan Province, the provincial capital Chengdu and Chongqing.

(Xinhua News Agency May 16, 2008)