Worshippers of the sea goddess Matsu may have to be patient a bit longer before they can carry out plans to sail directly across the Taiwan Strait on pilgrimages to her traditional home in Fujian Province, central government officials said yesterday.
In their most recent attempt to challenge the government's existing ban on direct links with China, the board of the Chenlan Matsu Temple in Taichung County suggested worshippers should be able to travel to China directly, with only one short stop at Kinmen.
The temple board has expressed its hope that with the recent passage of the Outlying Islands Development Law by Taiwan's Legislative Yuan -- which eases the ban on direct links between China and Kinmen, Matsu and the Penghu Islands -- worshippers could travel to Kinmen and then on to Meizhou Island in Fujian's Putian County.
That goal has proved too difficult, however, as existing government regulations do not allow for such a route to be followed, said Wu An-chia (
"No matter whether it is "three links" (
The "three links" refers to the government's current ban on direct commercial, communications and transportation links with China. The recent outlying islands law has been dubbed the "small three links."
Implementing the act, for example, would require the joint efforts of the economics, interior, defense and transportation and communications ministries, along with the MAC, Wu said.
The existing consensus between the Ministry of Transportation and Communications and the MAC over the annual Matsu pilgrimage to Fujian is that temple organizers hire a foreign-run cruise service, which would stop at a third country before reaching China, Wu said.
It was hoped that Matsu worshippers from the Chenlan Temple could travel to China as early as June, temple representatives said recently.
The temple has negotiated a contract with a Singapore cruise company, and expects to take some 7,000 worshippers to China.
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