Taiwan to lift ban on individual Chinese tourists

Jun 2, 2011, 3:32 GMT

Taipei - Taiwan will lift its travel ban on individual Chinese tourists later this month, Premier Wu Den-yih said Thursday.

Taiwan, which currently only accepts tour groups from China, will open its doors to solo tourists in late June, the Economic Daily News quoted Wu as saying.

In the initial stage, up to 500 individual Chinese tourists per day will be accepted from Beijing, Shanghai and Xiamen, for a maximum 15-day visit.

Taipei and Beijing have also agreed to increase cross-Strait flights from the current 370 to 500 flights per week, Wu said.

Taipei is expected to formally announce the dropping of the ban Wednesday at a bilateral meeting to review cross-Strait exchanges, the Economic Daily News said.

Taiwan lifted its five-decade ban on air links with China in late 2008. Since then, 1.82 million Chinese tourists have visited Taiwan with tour groups. Last year, 1.63 million Chinese visited Taiwan, up 67 per cent year-on-year.

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