Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) said he would consider the idea of opening the legislature to visits by Chinese tourists.
Wang said giving Chinese tourists a closer look at how Taiwanese democracy operates should help cross-strait interaction.
“I believe they will talk about the things they see and hear in Taiwan when they return to the mainland,” Wang said.
Photo: Yang Chiu-ying, Taipei Times
He made the remarks against the backdrop of the country’s impending opening to independent Chinese tourists.
The first batch of independent Chinese tourists is scheduled to arrive on Tuesday. Previously, tourists from China were only permitted to enter Taiwan as part of a tour group.
Aside from Taiwan’s numerous popular scenic spots, the legislature, a symbol of Taiwanese democracy, could also be an attraction for tourists traveling as part of the Free Independent Travelers (FIT) program.
Wang added that before opening the legislature to outsiders, it would map out complementary measures to ensure that visitors do not disrupt its normal proceedings.
Meanwhile, several Taiwanese tour operators said many Chinese tourists — used to the propaganda programs on state TV — had asked to stay in their hotels to watch the freewheeling TV political talk shows in Taiwan.
The Chinese-language United Daily News reported that a number of Chinese college students received a “shock education” during their internship at Taiwan’s legislature.
“They were surprised that our lawmakers could question and even shout at senior government officials,” it said.
Taiwan’s senior officials, from the premier to the ministers, regularly deliver reports at the legislature and answer lawmakers’ questions in lengthy sessions.
Taiwanese leaders hope that Chinese visitors would be inspired by the freedom and human rights that people enjoy in Taiwan and in turn demand that their government relax political controls.
In related developments, hotels and restaurants in Greater Kaohsiung are upgrading their facilities to attract independent Chinese travelers,
Kingship Hotel Kaohsiung, a four-star business hotel located in downtown Kaohsiung, for example, has spent more than NT$200 million (US$6.9 million) on renovating its 30-year-old building. Chinese customers account for half of the hotel’s clientele.
Kingship chairman Lin Fu-nan (林富男) said the hotel industry is “ready,” and that he is optimistic about the business opportunities to be brought by independent Chinese travelers.
However, he also questioned whether the efforts of the hotel industry would pay off if direct flights and attractions at the city’s scenic spots are not increased and improved.
There are currently 29 direct flights between Kaohsiung and eight Chinese cities per week, accounting for only 7 percent of the national total.
Another local hotel, Hotel Sunshine, has spent NT$500 million renovating its rooms and upgrading its services, again to attract Chinese tourists.
The Chef Teng Restaurant Group, a local chain, meanwhile, is also establishing a restaurant in Kaohsiung’s airport targeting independent Chinese tourists. The restaurant will offer free Internet access and a reading area.
Also aiming to attract Chinese tourists is E-Da World, a recreational theme park in the southern city. E-Da chief strategy officer Tang Ya-chun said E-Da is considering building a gondola to increase the willingness of Chinese tourists to stay overnight at the park’s hotels.
The hotel occupancy rates in Kaohsiung, Taiwan’s second-largest city, temporarily dropped after the screening of a documentary about exiled Uighur activist Rebiya Kadeer in the city, said Liu Kun-fu (劉坤福), chairman of the Kaohsiung Hotel Association, adding that current occupancy rates are at between 60 percent and 70 percent.
Tension between Kaohsiung and China escalated in 2009 after Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊)screened the documentary on Kadeer, who Beijing considers a separatist, a few weeks after Chen invited Tibet’s exiled leader the Dalai Lama to Kaohsiung to pray for victims of Typhoon Morakot.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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