The first cargo ship from Taiwan via a direct shipping route to the Chinese mainland since 1949 docked at the port of Xiamen, Fujian province on 17 December.
Goods unloaded from 326 containers on the ship included oranges, machinery, electronic products, auto parts and chemical materials.
The vessel left Kaohsiung on Tuesday evening and arrived in Xiamen the following morning. Zheng Yonggang, a mainland buyer of the Taiwan oranges, said the same journey via Hong Kong used to take a minimum of seven days.
Direct daily air transport across the straits started two days earlier when the mainland-based Shenzhen Airlines plane took off from Shenzhen Airport for Taipei, ending a 59-year ban on such links. Another mainland jet left from Shanghai on a direct flight to Taiwan and returned on Wednesday, fully loaded with Taiwan-made electronic goods.