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There have been no regular direct flights between Taiwan and the mainland since civil war divided the two in 1949.
Visitors from Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing, Xiamen and Guangzhou landed at Taiwanese airports in Taipei, Taoyuan, Kaohsiung, Hualien, Taitung and Penghu. They will stay for a period of eight to ten days.
Beijing and Taipei signed an agreement last month to allow 3,000 mainland tourists per day to visit Taiwan in groups without traveling through a third city, as has been required until now. They will no longer be asked to pay a security deposit, previously as high as 200,000 yuan (US$29,000).
Initially Taiwan plans to accept about 1,000 mainland tourists per day, eventually tripling that number, said a spokesperson from the Taiwan Affairs Office of China’s State Council. The visitors are expected to bring a welcome boost to Taiwan’s economy.
The first flight, by China Southern Airlines, arrived Friday at Taiwan’s Taoyuan Airport at 8:30 a.m. from Guangzhou, piloted by the airline company’s chairman, Liu Shaoyong. “It feels like arriving home,” Liu said at a welcoming reception.
A Xiamen Airlines flight arriving in Taipei from Xiamen was welcomed with streams of water sprayed from fire hoses. The company’s deputy general manager, who piloted the plane, was warmly applauded as he waved at passengers and guests before leaving the airport.
The charter flights must still fly through Hong Kong’s airspace due to security concerns among some Taiwanese officials and politicians.
“It used to take eight hours by transferring in Hong Kong; now it only takes 80 minutes to come to Taiwan!” Guo Hengming, head of the Travel Bureau of Xiamen, exclaimed. He greeted the Taiwanese in the Fujian dialect that most Taiwanese are fluent in. The oldest tourist in the Fujian group is a 76-year-old mainlander whose lifelong dream was to visit Taiwan.
Among the first batch of tourists are 310 from Beijing, including an exploratory mission led by Shao Qiwei, director of China’s Travel Bureau. This group, including 33 bureau officials and 60 media professionals, will be given the most attention throughout the trip.
Its route will also be different from the other tourists. The officials will visit several areas rebuilt after the Sept. 21 earthquake of 2000 that hit mid-west Taiwan. They will also meet with Taiwanese officials and Lien Chan, the honorary chairman of the ruling Kuomintang.
All the mainland guests will be treated well, as Taiwan wants them to carry home good reports that will attract more tourists. They will stay in five-star hotels, enjoy fine food and follow a carefully chosen route with a few prearranged shopping stops. Mainland authorities announced that the trip would cost US$80 to $100 per day, but Taiwan travel agencies told the media they went over budget at US$120 per day. This shows how desperately Taiwan’s tourism industry wants to make a good impression to secure this new market.
The mainland tourists will visit Taiwan’s most famous scenic spots, especially Mount Ali and Sun Moon Lake, names known to almost all Chinese from their school textbooks. They will visit Taiwan’s National Palace Museum, where many precious antiques and cultural relics brought from the mainland by the Kuomintang army in 1949 are on display. The tombs of former presidents Chiang Kai-shek and his son Chiang Ching-kuo are also on the route, as are Taipei’s new landmarks, the 101 Shopping Mall and the newly completed Taiwan High Speed Rail.
Politicians from the opposition Democratic Progressive Party seem to be the only ones who do not welcome the new openness toward mainland tourists. They have raised many concerns, including the likelihood that tourists will escape from their groups and become illegal immigrants, that they may spread infectious diseases, behave rudely in public, or attack Taiwan independence activists or Falun Gong believers.
Some travel agencies that are not involved in the new wave of mainland tourists, and will continue to cater primarily to Japanese visitors have also expressed fears that mixing with mainland tourists might offend the Japanese. It is in their business interest to adjust to the situation, however. If the maximum of 3,000 per day is achieved the number of mainland guests will surpass the Japanese.
Coincidently, China also added the United States to its list of destinations for overseas tour groups this month, after negotiations with the United States. The first group of Chinese tourists under this program arrived in the United States on June 17 and received a big welcome from the U.S. government and tourism industry.
