Taiwan may allow more mainland Chinese visitors
By Kathrin Hille in Taipei
Published: October 21 2005 13:00 | Last updated: October 21 2005 13:00

China will send a delegation to Taiwan next week to review the island's tourist attractions and infrastructure, in a sign that the two may finally be making progress towards allowing more mainland citizens to visit Taiwan.

“Shao Qiwei, head of the mainland's State Tourism Office, will lead a 66-strong group of officials, industry representatives and reporters to visit Taiwan from October 28,” Johnnason Liu, vice chairman of the Mainland Affairs Council, Taiwan's cabinet-level China policy body, said on Friday.

So far, only an average of 5,000 Chinese citizens a month visit Taiwan. If the two sides agree to relax restrictions, this number could increase six-fold. Taiwan's government has said it is ready to admit up to 1,000 Chinese tourists a day.

Politicians and tourism representatives in Taiwan interpreted Mr Shao's visit as a preparatory step by China's government to add the island to the list of its official travel destinations.

“[China] has always sent delegations to inspect attractions and infrastructure before it opened new tourism destinations,” the MAC said.

Such a deal would mark the first significant progress in cross-Strait economic exchanges for years.

It would also give the island's economy a welcome boost. Even conservative government estimates say it could accelerate gross domestic product growth by more than 1 percentage point and create thousands of jobs.

Domestic demand would also get a badly needed boost. Taiwan's economy is expected to grow little more than 3 per cent this year, trailing the performance of every Asian country except Japan.

Beijing has bilateral agreements with countries or areas it lists as official destinations, which cover the supervision of tour operators and care for any citizen having an accident abroad.

It is easy for ordinary Chinese citizens to get travel permits, for purposes other than business, only for official destinations.

Opposition politicians and tourism industry executives said they believed Mr Shao's visit would also be used for unofficial negotiations with Taipei officials.

Since the disagreement between Taipei and Beijing over Taiwan's status prevents the two governments from conducting direct talks, Taipei has authorised the Travel Agent Association of the Republic of China/Taiwan to negotiate with Chinese counterparts.

http://news.ft.com/cms/s/6418c2ae-4226-11d...000e2511c8.html

finally our elected officials realize the benifits mainland tourists can bring to our economy...... they should have seen it along time ago

We have to thank the blue official

Start sending in the PLA special forces!

Can they vote?

When the PLA forces occupy Taiwan, we will sort out the Taiwanese separatists and send them to the countryside in China to be re-educated

I prefer sending them all back to Japan

Why there would even be pro-Japanese taiwanese?

CCP really really did not have a decent reputaion.

^ No Chinese disagrees on the way the CCP handles the situation. If anything, they want the CCP to apply more pressure.

No, they'll make sure that the dogs Chen and Lu don't escape in the event of war.

They deserve nothing but the best torture treatment from all Chinese around the world.

opening the door to mainland chinese visitor is not a big deal. in fact, austerlia and japan have similar ties. each nation's citizens can travel to japan or austerlia for up to two years without visa and can find jobs and work at each other nations.
also, for americans we can travel to s korea, japan, taiwan, hong kong, phillippines all without visa for up to 3 months.
so this type of open borders is nothing new. however, i am sure taiwan need to keep an eye out for mainland spies. and don't let any mainlander stay for over two weeks.
basically, more than anything else, what is going to happen is it will be similar to japan and hong kong. many mainlanders travel there to make money. if you go to japan, their immegration dept issues 1.5 million entertainment visas to chinese and phillippinos girls between the ages of 18 to 25. and obviously, you know , they don't go there to sing and dance.

well well well , you finally admit that you are not from Taiwan

How pathetically Taiwanese women were like the largest hooker wave ever happened in Japan.

Maybe you don't believe it, go ask your mom.

elysee,
where did you get this hooker wave ??
it is the mainland chinese girls who are currenlty in japan. approximately 1.5 million to be exact. chech it out yourself. http://www.japantoday.com or
metropolis japan. then go to the discussion forum.
so when you go to china and can not find any cute girls , they are all in japan, loving japanese men. and you know , japanese men love S & M and bondage. a spanking, whipping good time. ha ha ha!!

oh... it is all clear now!! now i know what you meant by when you say "you like whipping chinese men..." i see I bet you like to wrestle with them on mud pools too right ?? dont be ashame WE wont laugh

2 2

for blobbol
if you sisters came back from japan with a load of cash, and bruises all over their body, you know how they got it.
ha ha ha!!

you are a very disturbed individual.

I'm sorry, were you trying to be funny?

what's so controversial about this?

seems pretty normal...

i am not the one going to japan to sell my bottom, mainland chinese girls are.
jacky chan was right, mainland chinse women should all go marry foreign men.
all this i hear about anti japanese from mainlanders, and KMT, hey, your women are the ones doing all the loving with japanese men.
so don't blame me for saying it like it is.

lol he's so funny. his primary source is jacky chan.

and jackie was only joking.

and he is a joke just like Taiwan