Cargoes are loaded onto the ship heading for Taiwan at the Tianjin Port.

Monday also marked the start of direct shipping and postal services across the Taiwan Straits.

Mainland resident Zheng Jian, 81, who was born in Taiwan, posted a letter to his Taiwan relatives at a ceremony on Monday morning in Beijing.

A similar ceremony was held in Taipei, at which Taiwan's Chunghwa Post Co., Ltd. Chairman Wu Min-Yu posted an express letter to Liu Andong, president of the mainland's China Post Corp.

An employee of Chunghwu Post told Xinhua that the mail will leave on a 10:00 a.m. flight from Taipei to Beijing. "Mr. Liu will probably receive the mail before he leaves his office this afternoon," the staffer said.

The mainland and Taiwan didn't have direct express mail service in the past. Ordinary or registered mail from Taiwan to the mainland first went through the Hong Kong or Macao Special Administrative Regions, then to distribution centers in Beijing or Shanghai before it was delivered.

With the start of direct air and shipping services, Taiwan transport authorities estimated that the delivery time of ordinary letters from Taiwan to Beijing or Shanghai will be shortened to five to six days from the previous seven to eight days.

To speed up mail services, the mainland has agreed to open three more delivery centers in Nanjing, Xi'an and Chengdu in addition to the previous five centers -- Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Xiamen and Fuzhou.

Taiwan also agreed to add three centers -- Kaohsiung, Kinmen and Matsu -- to those already functioning, which were Taipei and Keelung.

Also on Monday morning, mainland and Taiwan dignitaries, including State Council Taiwan Affairs Office Wang Yi and Taiwan's ruling Kuomintang Honorary Chairman Lien Chan, gathered at a port in Tianjin to celebrate the start of cross-Straits direct shipping.

Under the agreement on direct shipping, passenger and cargo vessels owned by mainland and Taiwan companies may sail directly across the Straits subject to official approval.

The mainland will open 63 ports to Taiwan ships while Taiwan will open 11. The two sides might increase the number of ports based on a "developing situation," according to the agreement.