Officials from the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) and Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS) yesterday confirmed that individual Chinese tourists would be allowed to visit Taiwan by the end of this month — although they did not give an exact timetable or any other details.
The two sides also said they would increase the number of cross-strait flights from the current 370 per week to 550 or more in view of a larger number of Chinese tourists heading toward Taiwan.
Greater Tainan and Yencheng City in Jiangsu Province will be added to the list of stops in cross-strait flights, they said.
The announcement came after a four-hour meeting at Taipei’s Grand Hotel to review the implementation of cross-strait agreements.
ARATS Deputy Chairman Zheng Lizhong (鄭立中) told a press conference after the meeting that the two sides would work on the details and paperwork before formally announcing the individual tourist format.
SEF Deputy Chairman Kao Koong-lian (高孔廉) refused to confirm whether individual Chinese tourists would be allowed to visit starting on June 25.
The Mainland Affairs Council has previously said a maximum of 500 Chinese residents of Shanghai, Beijing and Xiamen per day will be eligible to visit Taiwan as independent tourists. Residents from Fujian Province will be able to travel as individuals to Kinmen and Matsu.
Applicants for individual visits must either be students older than 18 or non-students who are at least 20 years old. A visit will be limited to a maximum of 15 days, and those who fail to follow regulations will be barred from the country for three years.
Travel agencies that handle individual Chinese tourist visits will also be held responsible for any violations of the regulations.
Kao said the foundation and ARATS also agreed to work together to get more landing slots, reduce airfares and enforce the safety of cross-strait travel, among other measures to promote tourism.
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
Taiwan's Gold Apollo Co (金阿波羅通信) said today that the pagers used in detonations in Lebanon the day before were not made by it, but by a company called BAC which has a license to use its brand. At least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously across Lebanon yesterday. Images of destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo. A senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo. "The product was not
COLD FACTS: ‘Snow skin’ mooncakes, made with a glutinous rice skin and kept at a low temperature, have relatively few calories compared with other mooncakes Traditional mooncakes are a typical treat for many Taiwanese in the lead-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but a Taipei-based dietitian has urged people not to eat more than one per day and not to have them every day due to their high fat and calorie content. As mooncakes contain a lot of oil and sugar, they can have negative health effects on older people and those with diabetes, said Lai Yu-han (賴俞含), a dietitian at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. “The maximum you can have is one mooncake a day, and do not eat them every day,” Lai