Mainland tourists to Taiwan surge during holiday

BEIJING - The number of mainland tourists to Taiwan doubled during the week-long National Day holiday early this month, a mainland spokesman said on Wednesday.

The number of mainland visitors between September 30 and October 7 amounted to 46,700, an increase of 116 percent compared with 21,600 visitors during the same period of last year, Yang Yi, spokesman for the State Council's Taiwan Affairs Office, said at a regular press conference.

Yang highlighted the number of individual tourists traveling without the help of agencies, which grew from 2,386 to 12,900.

According to figures released by Taiwan authorities, more than 4 million mainland tourists had visited Taiwan by the end of August since the island was opened to mainland travelers in July 2008, bringing some 216.7 billion New Taiwan dollars (7.4 billion U.S. dollars) to the island.

In response to a question regarding cross-strait cooperation in the banking sector, Yang dismissed recent allegation that Taiwan banks are restricted to acquire shares in mainland banks and voiced support for banks that wish to invest in their counterparts across the strait.

The Chinese mainland and Taiwan signed a memorandum of understanding to strengthen cross-strait banking cooperation in 2009. Yang said the mainland hoped that the two sides will take more positive and opening measures to promote banking exchanges.

Yang said both sides are expected to promptly implement an agreement on direct cross-strait currency clearing after it goes into effect.