Wed, August 08, 2012
KAOHSIUNG, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- Four more Chinese mainland cities have been approved to grant individual tourist visits to Taiwan as of Aug. 28, according to tourism associations on both sides of the Taiwan Strait on Wednesday.
The Chinese mainland's Association for Tourism Exchange Across the Taiwan Strait and Taiwan's Taiwan Strait Tourism Association agreed to allow residents of the cities of Jinan, Xi'an, Fuzhou and Shenzhen to visit Taiwan as individual tourists starting from Aug. 28.
Shao Qiwei, president of the Beijing-based Association for Tourism Exchange Across the Taiwan Strait, said another 11 mainland cities have been authorized to grant tourists permission to travel to Taiwan's islands of Kinmen, Penghu and Matzu as of Aug. 28.
Taiwan first opened its doors to individual tourists from mainland cities, including Beijing, Shanghai and Xiamen, on June 28 last year.
Residents from Tianjin, Chongqing, Nanjing, Hangzhou, Guangzhou and Chengdu have been allowed to visit Taiwan since April 28.
Over 1.3 million mainland tourists visited Taiwan during the first half of 2012, up 50.7 percent year on year, Shao said on Monday.
Shao said the number of tourists traveling across the Taiwan Strait annually will reach 13 million in 2016 and 20 million by 2020.
