Charter flights between Chinese mainland and Taiwan started yesterday for the national Dragon Boat Festival holiday.

A China Airlines flight carrying around 150 people from Taiwan arrived at Pudong International Airport at 10:30am. It returned to Taipei with 158 passengers about 40 minutes later.

Nineteen round-trip flights across the Taiwan Straits between June 3 and 15 were arranged for the traditional duanwu, or Dragon Boat Festival, which falls on Sunday.

Shanghai has 14 round-trip charter flights, which are expected to carry 6,000 passengers. Other mainland cities with charger flights are Beijing, Guangzhou and Xiamen.

Carriers flying the direct routes are Air China, China Eastern, China Southern, Xiamen Airlines and Shanghai Airlines on the mainland, and China Airlines, Mandarin Airlines, EVA Air, UNI Air and TransAsia Airways in Taiwan.

The Dragon Boat Festival falls on the fifth day of the fifth month of the Chinese lunar calendar. It commemorates a patriotic Chinese poet who lived more than 2,000 years ago. During the festival, boat races are held and zongzi - pyramid-shaped dumplings - are eaten.

(Xinhua News Agency June 4, 2008)