China Reopens Tour Group Travel From Fujian to Kinmen

TaiwanPlus News

China is allowing tour groups to travel to Taiwan's Kinmen Islands for the first time since 2020, pending approval from Taiwanese authorities. It comes after years of tit-for-tat travel bans between the two sides.

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00:00Guns like these can be found throughout Taiwan's Jinmen County, a reminder of past conflict

00:08with China and now also popular tourist attractions.

00:12But for years, this island county has been missing one notable group of visitors, people

00:16from China.

00:18The COVID pandemic and tensions between Taipei and Beijing have kept cross-strait tourism

00:22shut down here since 2020, but that's about to change.

00:26Jinmen is set to welcome back tourists from China's Fujian province on September 18, pending

00:30approval by Taiwanese authorities.

00:33That's after Beijing dropped travel restrictions following pleas from local Jinmen officials.

00:48Jinmen is only three kilometers away from China's shores, but for such a short journey,

00:52the distance has seemed insurmountable in recent years.

00:56It was only in March that Taiwan allowed group tours to China again, seeing around 100-thousand

01:01outbound travelers before reinstating the ban just three months later due to Beijing's

01:05refusal to reciprocate.

01:18China resumed group tours to Taiwan's Mazu Islands in June, but only saw seven travelers.

01:24Jinmen is eager to get more Chinese tourists, who made up 40 percent of the county's tourism

01:28before the pandemic.

01:29But the sudden reopening has others questioning why tourism is being decided on China's terms.

01:46Some government officials noted that China's lifting of the travel ban also coincided with

01:51the lifting of a years-long pomelo import ban.

02:09Meaning that despite a limited resumption of exchanges between Taiwan and China, it

02:13might take much more than a few tourists to fix the years of hostility and mistrust between

02:18the two sides.

02:19Alex Chen and Tiffany Wong for Taiwan Plus.

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