For the first time in 51 years, a Chinese ship crossed the Taiwan Strait and docked at the tiny Taiwanese island of Quemoy yesterday.
It was a moment that 80-yearold Li Mingfu and thousands of other Chinese families had waited more than a half a century for.
The ship carried 80 family members split by the 1949 war, which divided China and Taiwan. The vessel's arrival signals that China may be willing to go along with Taipei's new policy of allowing limited trade and shipping links between its outlying islands and China.
Yesterday, the decades of division ended in hugs and tears of joy as the China-registered Gulangyu docked to be welcomed by the sounds of gongs, drums and firecrackers.
Many on board the ship were born on Quemoy but moved to the mainland before the civil war and have been unable to return to visit relatives.
Aboard the passenger ferry was 80-year-old Li Mingfu, a doctor of Chinese traditional medicine, who was reunited with his 89-year-old sister Xu Li Qin.
"I never thought I would see you again here," he said, as he embraced his frail sister. "I don't want to talk about politics. I'm just happy to see my sister."
It took just 50 minutes for the vessel to cross the narrow Taiwan Strait from the port city of Xiamen.
Taiwan banned direct trade, travel and postal links with China in 1949 after Gen Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist troops were defeated by the Communists and fled into exile on the islands.
But the new government of President Chen Shui-bian has approved limited direct contacts between Taiwan's outlying islands and the Chinese province of Fujian.
Last month, a Taiwan ship made the first legal direct crossing in the opposite direction.
And then last week, Taipei gave a group of Taiwan businessmen the go-ahead to sail directly to Xiamen, easing curbs which restrict such voyages to residents of Quemoy and Matsu.
Taiwan residents have been allowed to travel to China to visit relatives through a third country since 1987, and most of the 80 Quemoy natives have hosted family members from Taiwan since that time.
China still regards Taiwan as a renegade province to be reunited with the mainland.
However, in a further sign of warming ties, the first Chinese reporters to be posted to Taiwan are due tomorrow.
China has also loaned Taiwan 17 of its world famous terracotta warriors that guard the tomb of China's first emperor.
Taiwan began allowing direct shipping ties between its outlying islands and the mainland on January 1st, a policy known as the "mini links".
Taiwan declared the new ties as a major goodwill gesture. But China dismissed them as an excuse to stall on ending the ban on direct trade and transportation ties - known as the "big links" - between China and the main island of Taiwan.
Opponents of the Taiwanese President, Mr Chen Shui-bian, have criticised his "mini links" policy as an empty gesture because it was implemented without talks with Beijing.