The weekend charter flights carrying mainland tourists across the Taiwan Straits contributed to the peaceful development of the cross-Straits relationship and opened a new page in the Chinese nation's prosperity, said Chinese Kuomintang honorary chairman Lien Chan on Saturday.

"We had been waiting for the day for almost 60 years, and had gone through some difficult periods," said Lien in a meeting with Shao Qiwei, chairman of the Cross-Straits Tourism Communication Association (CSTCA) in Taipei on Saturday.

He said it was appropriate for the media to describe weekend charter flights and the arrival of mainland tourists in Taiwan as "epoch-making".

The two events would benefit compatriots on both sides, stimulating consumption and the economy in Taiwan, while improving mutual understanding, said Lien.

They would help cultivate harmonious attitudes, strengthen ties and deepen collaboration.

Shao Qiwei thanked Lien Chan for the contribution he had made to cross-Straits exchanges and the development of the relationship.

He said it took him just three hours and 40 minutes to fly from Beijing to Taipei. It would have taken two hours less from Guangzhou.

"All of us felt that compatriots on both sides of the Straits were so close to each other," Shao said.

He said tourism industries on both sides should take responsibility for providing good services to mainland tourists traveling to Taiwan. "We have to make our own contribution to cross-Straits peaceful development."

At the meeting, Shao outlined the development of the mainland's tourism industry and invited Lien Chan and his family to tour the mainland.

(Xinhua News Agency July 5, 2008)