Flying Shanghai Taipei

Is there a way to know which flight route is the newest in the world? I bet Shanghai Taipei rank right up there!

The trip from Shanghai to Taipei used to take a ridiculous 8 hours (door to door, plus wait time) via Hong Kong. Now, there are direct flights between the two thanks to some good common sense by both sides.

When I checked in, I walked over to the Air China (Mainland's airlines, which is very very different from China Airlines, the accident-riddled Taiwan national airlines) to check in. At the counter, the lady kindly tells me "Sir, Taipei flights are over at the international counters in H."

International counter, eh? Since I was at the counter 10 minutes before the gates closed, I didn't inquire further. But as I was walking to the Air China "international counters," I couldn't help but wonder how long it took the two governments to make this work. Did someone mandate that the Taipei check-ins had to be in the international counters (HK and Macao's are there too, I might add)? I bet that took up a solid three days of negotiation to clear up.

Flight was short and sweet. Food was terrible.