Hefei tourists will have a new option in December to transfer between trains and flights -- taking the high speed train to Shanghai and then flying to Taipei via a budget flight, Hefei Daily reported.

This is the second attempt for Spring Airlines, the first budget carrier to operate flights between the Chinese mainland and Taiwan, to run cross-Straits non-stop flights.

On October 27, the Shanghai Railway Bureau and Spring Airlines jointly launched the first “train-flight express,” a non-stop flight from Shanghai to the city of Kaohsiung in Taiwan, together with a railway journey from Hefei to Shanghai.

Passengers from 15 cities in East China, including Hefei, Nanjing, Suzhou and Zhenjiang, can buy their train-flight tickets at one time.

To provide better services to passengers, the railway bureau will work closely with the airplane operator to ensure there is enough time between train-flight transfers. Meanwhile, a guide map will be available to clarify the transfer process.

By Huang Pei

Edited by Michael Thai