Aboard the China Eastern MU Flight 548 were 246 of less than 3,000 Chinese tourists believed being trapped in Thailand. The plane which left the Shanghai Pudong International Airport at noon yesterday, returned to the airport at 2:15 today.

Twenty-eight tourists aboard will fly to Kunming, the provincial capital of southern Yunnan Province, from Shanghai.

The China Eastern airline reached Thailand's Utapao Airport near Pattaya, about 150 km east of Bangkok, at 17:01 Saturday and started the returning journey at 22:36.

Zhou, a father who was expecting his stranded daughter to arrive on Sunday, rushed to the Pudong airport at 1:00 on Sunday. His daughter had an internship with the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation in the turmoil country after anti-government protesters laid siege to Thailand's Suvarnabhumi International Airport earlier last week.

"My family were deeply concerned about my daughter's safety after learning the Thailand airport was closed. We felt a great relief that she could take the charter flight and finally got back safe," said Zhou.

Gao, a manager of a Shanghai food company who went to Thailand for market research and was scheduled to be back to Shanghai on Wednesday, said he was "very happy to be back home" and was deeply impressed that the Chinese government could immediately organize charter flights in time of stress.

A source with the China Eastern said the plane returned people with tickets on the airline, 26 members of the operating crew as well as other Chinese citizens if seats were available.

Due to the large number of trapped tourists, the Shanghai Airlines also dispatched two flights to Thailand to bring stranded Chinese home. A plane sent by China Southern Airline, taking off from Guangzhou, capital of the southern Guangdong Province, was also expected to return today.