Historic flights between Taiwan and China began taking off on Friday, ushering in the first wave of what could become millions of Chinese visitors to the island as relations warm between the long-time rivals.

The first of the flights, a China Southern Airlines plane, departed from Guangzhou in southern China early in the morning, the mainland's Xinhua news agency reported.

No regular direct flights, aside from a few charters on select holidays, have flown since 1949, when defeated Nationalist forces fled to Taiwan after the Chinese civil war.

China claims sovereignty over self-ruled Taiwan and has vowed to bring the island under its rule, by force if necessary.

"Opening Taiwan to mainland China tourists is an important policy of the current government," Taiwan Premier Liu Chao-shiuan said in a statement on Thursday.

"The advantages of mainland tourist visits to Taiwan are not only stimulus for related industries, job opportunities for citizens and other tangible interests," he said.

"It's also for mutual peace, a deepening of exchanges, elevating our international image and other non-tangible points."

Top negotiators from China and Taiwan agreed last month to the weekend charter flights. They also decided to let as many as 3,000 Chinese tourists a day visit the island, which has viewed them as a security risk previously but now wants their money.

The 36 round trips per weekend will eliminate time-consuming Hong Kong or Macau stopovers for China-bound Taiwanese, about one million of whom live on the mainland. But they will continue to fly a roundabout route through Hong Kong air space for security reasons.

Around 600 Chinese people, including China's top tourism official and 32 other government leaders, are expected to board the Friday flights, the island's government and media say.

Twelve airlines, eight Taiwan airports and numerous travel agents have scrambled over the past month to prepare for Friday's flights, which ply between Taiwan and the Chinese cities of Beijing, Guangzhou, Nanjing, Shanghai and Xiamen.

Although the routes are dubbed weekend charters, they run Friday through Monday. Only travel agents can sell tickets.

Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou, who took office in May on pledges to revitalize the island's economy with closer trade and transit ties to China, has estimated that 50 million Chinese want to visit hard-to-reach Taiwan.