2nd wave of Chinese tourists arrives in Taiwan amid tropical storm

TAIPEI, July 19 Kyodo - A ''second wave'' of Chinese tourists began arriving in Taiwan on Friday on nonstop charter flights, in a further sign of warming ties across the Taiwan Strait.

Braving a tropical storm that has caused flooding around Taiwan, some 1,200 tourists from Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and other mainland cities were due to arrive in Taipei during the day.

Another 700 are expected to follow Saturday to Monday as part of the island's opening up to Chinese visitors traveling to Taiwan on nonstop charter flights.

Chinese tour group guides at Taipei's Songshan Airport blamed the weather for
the low turnout of tourists, whose numbers fell well below the daily cap of 3,000.

''I've been everywhere on the mainland, even Xinjiang and Tibet, but I haven't
seen Taiwan yet. I've always wanted to come,'' an elderly Shanghainese surnamed
Chen said after arriving in Taipei on Friday's first flight from the mainland.
The tourists' entry marked the official start of the daily cap of 3,000, which
reverses a general ban on Chinese visitors seeking to travel directly to
Taiwan.
On July 4, the first wave of some 700 mainland visitors traveled directly to
the island in what was billed as a ''soft opening'' for direct tourism links.
That date also marked the official inauguration of the nonstop cross-strait
charter flights, every Friday to Monday.
Before the flights and tourism links, travelers from Taiwan to the mainland had
little choice but to transit in Hong Kong or Macao, adding hours to their
flight times, while Chinese vacationers could only enter Taiwan through a third
country.
China and Taiwan lacked aviation and tourism links as a remnant of their
decades-old rivalry. But their ties have warmed dramatically since Taiwanese
President Ma Ying-jeou took office May 20, vowing to improve cross-strait
relations.
Ma has vowed not to pursue ''de jure independence'' for the island during his
term.
Taiwan and China have been governed separately since 1949 when they split amid
civil war. China has since claimed the island as its own, vowing to pull it
into its political fold, by force if necessary.
Eager to bury the hatchet with Beijing, Ma kick-started cross-strait
negotiations less than a month into his presidency, inking pacts with Chinese
authorities on establishing the nonstop flights and tourism links.
The start of Ma's plan to allow in up to 3,000 mainland visitors daily was
somewhat dampened by Tropical Storm Kalmaegi, which came ashore Thursday as a
typhoon, lashing the island with heavy rains and wind before becoming a
tropical storm.
It has resulted in widespread flooding.
Chinese tour group guides said some itineraries would be modified to keep the
groups away from flooded areas in southern and central Taiwan.
''I'm most concerned about Huanlien,'' said local tour group guide Wang
Peng-yu, referring to a city on the island's east coast. ''Of course, if there
are landslides there, then we can just forget trips there.''
Preceding the second wave of undeterred tourists was legislation passed
Thursday by Taiwan's parliament relaxing investment rules for local firms
seeking to invest in China.
For companies based in Taiwan, all financial-based caps on China-bound
investment will be scrapped by Aug. 1, according to the new bill.
Taiwanese firms with headquarters outside of the island will be permitted to
invest up to 60 percent of their new assets in China, the bill states, doing
away with previous restrictions that allowed local enterprises with net assets
of less than US$165 million to invest only a maximum of 40 percent of those
assets in China.
Administrations preceding Ma's argued for the restrictions to prevent a
hollowing-out of the island's economy. Ma hopes to entice companies to
establish their headquarters locally and intensify cross-strait trade and
investment by liberalizing it to boost the local economy.
==Kyodo