DIRECT flights between Qingdao and Taiwan had carried 162,200 passengers by Dec. 25, a day before the second anniversary of the opening of direct flights.

    Last year, 121,000 passengers took direct flights, almost triple the number in 2009.

    There are 20 direct flights each week between Qingdao and Taoyuan, Songshan, Kao-hsiung and Hualien in Taiwan.

    The airport frontier inspection station attributed the big number of passengers to a “historical link” between Qingdao and Taiwan.

    There are more than 300,000 people from Qingdao living in Taiwan. They regularly return home for holidays and family reunions.

    (Martin Li, Zhang Xudong)