== Route== 
 Planes do not fly directly across the straight. A plane from Taipei bound for Shanghai, for example, first fly westsouthwestward to the south of Ishigaki. It then fly anit-clockwise around the Yaemyama Islands then westward through the strait between Yaeyama and Okinawa-honto into the East China Sea. For southern cities on the PRC mainland, e.g., Shenzhen and Guangzhou, planes have to fly through the Hong Kong FIR. Hong Kong's SCMP had a story months ago about the detour round the Yaeyamas.