For 81-year-old, it's direct from the heart

By Xie Yu and Hu Meidong (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-12-16 07:50

In a wired-up world, few still write letters, but Zheng Jian does because he believes a handwritten missive best conveys his feelings to relatives in Taiwan.

Zheng Jian posts a letter to Taiwan at Beijing Capital International Airport Monday, December 15, 2008. The 81-year-old was the first person to send a letter to the island after daily direct cross-Straits postal services were launched. [China Daily]

Mailing letters has become part of the 81-year-old's life but Monday morning, after dropping a letter into a mailbox at Beijing Capital International Airport, Zheng said he felt on top of world.

He was making history: The first person to mail a letter as direct postal services across the Straits were launched at the main postal sorting office at the airport.

Now, his younger sister in Taiwan will be able to get his letters and parcels within three days, instead of two weeks.

"Our family was separated on the two sides of the Straits (in 1949)," said Zheng, who was born and grew up in Taiwan before coming to the mainland in 1946 to attend college.

He lost touch with his family in 1949 and it was a full three decades before he resumed contact with his three siblings in Taiwan.

"I am so happy that communication has become more convenient, and the biggest convenience for me is that I can mail herbal medicine to my sister for the first time," Zheng told journalists.

Lin Feng-cheng, vice-chairman of the Kuomintang said at the launch ceremony that direct mail services benefit people on both sides of the Straits.

"We have conquered so many obstacles in the last 30 years to make it happen, so it is a momentous occasion," he said.

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 delivery.

Last month, the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS) and the Taiwan-based Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) signed a historic agreement on direct postal services.

From yesterday, services between postal bureaus across the Straits - including express mail, parcels and remittances - began going directly to Taiwan.

With the start of direct air and shipping services, Taiwan transport authorities estimate that the delivery time for ordinary mail from Taiwan to Beijing or Shanghai will be shortened significantly from the previous seven to eight days.

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

An employee of Chunghwa Post said that the mail was to leave on a 10 am flight from Taipei to Beijing. "Mr Liu will probably receive the mail before he leaves his office this afternoon," the employee said.

Lu Shitong, an official of China Post, told China Daily that a 600g document - which earlier cost 130 yuan ($19) and took 10 to 15 days to reach Taiwan from Beijing - now costs 99.5 yuan, and only takes three to seven days.

To speed up 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 Taipei and Keelung.