Taiwan opens door to individual Chinese tourists

Jun 28, 2011, 7:23 GMT

Taipei - Taiwan began receiving individual Chinese tourists Tuesday, with nearly 300 arriving on the first day of the relaxed requirements.

Local officials in Taipei and Taichung held welcome ceremonies for the mainlanders, placing garlands around their necks and showering them with gifts including hotel and hot-spring vouchers, bus passes, pineapple pastries and stamps.

Taiwan began accepting organised tour groups from China in 2008 after President Ma Ying-jeou took office with a pledge to seek peace through economic integration.

The new regulations allow a maximum of 500 individual Chinese travellers to enter the island each day for 15-day stays.

'We will review the measures in three months' time,' Lai Shin-yuan, chairwoman of the Mainland Affairs Council, said.

Despite the ease of tension, Taiwan is still guarding against possible attack from China which sees the island as its breakaway province, to be recovered by force if necessary.

On Tuesday, Ma made the 20th appeal since his inauguration to the United States to sell F16C/D warplanes to Taipei.

'We still hope to buy F16C/Ds and diesel submarines from the US and have the F16A/Bs upgraded, Ma said during a meeting with Raymond Burghardt, chairman of the American Institute in Taiwan - the de-facto US embassy in Taipei.

'With the continuous growth of China's defence power, it is very important to maintain the balance in the Taiwan Strait,' Ma said.

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