Flight attendant from Taiwan finds 'second home' in Xiamen

"I can hear my hometown dialect onboard wherever I travel, which makes me feel at home."

Liou Pei-syuan, 29, from Taiwan, is a flight attendant with Xiamen Airlines. In 2017, she left her home in New Taipei City to work in Xiamen, a coastal city in Fujian, the closest Chinese mainland province to Taiwan.

Every time she flies cross-Strait routes and sees familiar names of Taiwan places, it makes her feel at home. She is now married to a pilot with the airline who is from the mainland and regards Xiamen as her "second home".

During her college years, she visited the mainland many times through cross-Strait exchange programs and found that people were friendly. When she was about to graduate in 2017 she started looking for a job. By chance, she saw that Xiamen Airlines was recruiting in Taiwan, and its hiring slogan was in Hokkien, the southern Fujian dialect that is also spoken in Taiwan.

"The slogan means, 'it is fate that brings us together, and make your mark if you wish'," Liou said. "It resonated with me, because Taiwan is a small place and I wanted to see the big world."

Cross-Strait flights

In 2005, Xiamen Airlines became one of six airlines on the Chinese mainland allowed to operate direct cross-Strait charter flights for Taiwan businesspeople during Spring Festival, said Fan Hong, general manager of the airline's cabin service department.

In 2008, airlines received approval to operate regular direct cross-Strait flights. At the peak of the services' popularity, people could fly directly to 61 destinations on the Chinese mainland from Taiwan. This dwindled to just four destinations during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In February, the island was urged to prioritize the resumption of flights to 16 Chinese mainland destinations, but the island decided in March that only 10 would be resumed gradually.

As cross-Strait personnel exchanges recover, airlines and people on both sides have urged the full restoration of direct cross-Strait flights. Fan said with the integrated development of both sides of the Strait and increasing personnel exchanges, more flight attendantsfrom Taiwan are needed to serve on cross-Strait flights. The company began hiring Taiwan flight attendants in 2017 and now employs about 300, she said.

Settling down

Liou said over the past six years her colleagues from the mainland have helped her improve her work skills and learn Chinese. To help newcomers from Taiwan adapt to life and work on the Chinese mainland, she created an electronic handbook that includes information about the application processes for mainland travel permits for Taiwan residents.

Liou met her husband, Yuan Zhenyu, in her first year at the airline. Yuan, from Changsha, Hunan province, said Liou, the first Taiwan woman he's gotten to know, is very polite, well-mannered and sweet. Liou said Yuan is thoughtful, manly and reliable.

The couple has learned to respect each other and find ways to resolve their differences.

Yuan said that in terms of food, Taiwan's cuisine is usually lighter compared with Changsha, but they have learned to compromise. "Usually when we're at home, we don't cook very spicy food. But I will prepare myself a bottle of chile sauce," he said.

The couple also likes to learn each other's dialects, which they think are interesting. They also travel to their hometowns and get along well with each other's relatives.

"Now, this place is my second home," said Liou of her six years on the Chinese mainland. "Here, as long as you are willing to work hard, you can surely make your mark."

Hu Meidong in Fuzhou contributed to this story.