This day in history, January 29th

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Flight CI581, the first direct flight between Taipei and Beijing, and also the first direct flight between mainland China and Taiwan: January 29, 2005.

On this day, January 29th 2005, the first commercial flight flew from Mainland China to Republic of China on the island of Taiwan. This was the first ever commercial airliner to travel to the island since 1949, when Nationalist Chinese were defeated by the communists and retreated to the island of Formosa.

This flight was significant for it signified the normalization of relations between the two Chinas, marking the informal end to the long hostility which initiated by the results of the Chinese Civil War.

Shortly after a flight to Taipei from Guangzhou, a airliner of China Airline also flew from Taipei to Beijing.