A 13-member tour group of Chinese nationals who reside in Japan is scheduled to arrive in Taipei today for a four-day sightseeing trip, a spokesman for International Tour Operations (ITO) said yesterday.
It will be the first Chinese tour group to visit Taiwan since the government opened the door for overseas mainland citizens to make group tours at the beginning of this year.
ITO Vice President Lee Ta-wen (
"All of the members are male and mostly in their 60s or 70s," Lee said. "In addition to sightseeing, some of the members intend to survey the tourist market here."
During their stay, the group will visit popular northern Taiwan tourist attractions, including the National Palace Museum, the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, Keelung (基隆), Wulai (烏來) and Chiufen (九份) as well as major tourist hotels and restaurants in the region.
ITO, the local travel agency which organized the tour package for the mainland group, said the group has demanded high-quality room and catering services. The group will stay at the five-star Taipei Westin Hotel.
Among the members is Lin Tung-chun, a 77-year-old Chinese resident of Kobe. He was quoted as having told Taiwanese journalists stationed in Japan that he was very excited to be able to visit Taiwan.
"Taiwan is so close to Kobe, but I have waited for nearly 50 years to enter the island," Lin said. He moved from China's Fujian (福建) province to the southwestern Japanese port city of Kobe when he was nine years old. In 1959, he made a transit stop at the Taiwanese international airport on his way to Europe. As he held a mainland passport, he was banned from entering Taiwan at that time.
Lin, who is now honorary chairman of the largest Chinese association in Kobe, said he most yearns to visit Taipei's Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall during his stay in Taiwan.
As overseas Chinese people are only allowed to make group tours of Taiwan, ITO executives said they don't leave any free time for individual members to go off on their own.
As part of its efforts to boost exchanges across the Taiwan Strait, the nation began to allow Chinese citizens with permanent foreign residency or mainland students studying abroad to make pleasure trips starting Jan.1.
Meanwhile, the Taipei Association of Travel Agents (台北市旅行商業同業公會, TATA) said the second mainland tour group may arrive after the Chinese New Year, which falls on Feb. 12 this year.
Tourist sources said scores of Chinese residents in San Francisco have expressed interest in joining a Taiwan-mainland tour package organized by a travel agency there.
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