Chinese tourists visiting the Penghu islands on chartered flights between now and October will be granted landing visas, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday.
Starting on Sept. 30 last year, the government has issued landing visas to Chinese tourists visiting Kinmen and Matsu who do not hold positions in the People’s Liberation Army, the Chinese Communist Party or the Chinese government.
MAC Deputy Minister Liu Te-shun (劉德勳) yesterday said the measure was initiated on a trial basis and that the visitors could not travel to Taiwan proper.
Liu said the trial was proposed by the Penghu government, which expected to see a large number of Chinese tourists during the four-month period.
Liu said the government was also considering allowing Chinese visitors to travel without a tour group in Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu on a trial basis. Chinese tourists are currently required travel in a group of at least five.
Meanwhile, Chinese nationals will be granted work rights immediately upon marriage to Taiwanese, while the NT$2 million (US$60,000) cap on any inheritance they receive from their Taiwanese spouses will be abolished in the middle of next month.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
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