Individual tourists to be allowed to visit island

BEIJING / Shanghai - Travel agencies and tourists on the Chinese mainland have hailed a new move to allow individual tourists from pilot cities to travel to Taiwan from the second quarter this year.

Shao Qiwei, head of the National Tourism Administration, leaked the news on Tuesday after a meeting in Taipei with Chiang Pin-kung, chairman of the Straits Exchange Foundation for cross-Straits tourism ties.

The Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council had confirmed the news in a media release on Wednesday.