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Chinese tourists stay away from southern Taiwan in thousands

A Chinese tourist lies on the ground to take a photo of her friends with Taipei 101 in the background yesterday. Taipei 101 has become a must-see among Chinese visitors to Taipei. PHOTO: LIAO CHEN-HUEI, TAIPEI TIMES

A Chinese company is planning to send 9,500 of its employees and their family members to Taiwan on a sightseeing tour later this month, but they will not visit southern Taiwan, Taiwanese officials said.

Officials from the National Immigration Agency (NIA) and the Tourism Bureau said yesterday that the tourists from Beijing’s Pro-Health company would be divided into seven groups, the first of which would arrive in Taiwan via Hong Kong on Oct. 30.

The groups will have a choice of two tours during their seven-day visit, the itinerary Pro-Health sent to the Tourism Bureau and NIA said.

One tour would take the visitors to central Taiwan immediately after arriving at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport. They would then travel to Taipei before heading home.

The second choice would allow the tourists to first visit Taipei, then drive to central Taiwan where they would visit Sun Moon Lake and other tourist attractions.

The travel plans do not include southern Taiwan, the officials said without giving a reason for the exclusion. In March, when more than 10,000 employees and sales representatives of the Chinese branch of the international marketing company Amway came to Taiwan on a cruise, they did not visit southern Taiwan either.

At the time, the company said the groups only had only three days to tour Taiwan, so it would be impractical to include Kaohsiung Harbor in the itinerary.

Southern Taiwan is known to be a stronghold of the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party.
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