Residents in Fujian Province may be looking forward to visiting Jinmen and Mazu islands across the Taiwan Straits as tourists around the Spring Festival period in January next year, according to a tourism official of this coastal province.

As a port city facing Taiwan across the straits, Xiamen will take advantage of its regional proximity to effectively promote communication on tour routes to Jinmen.

Negotiations on travel to Jinmen and Taiwan islands have already reached what is considered a significant phase. Travel packages to Taiwan Island will hopefully be available at the end of this year, Xiamen Mayor Zhang Changping said recently.

If the negotiations go on smoothly, Fujian residents may finally realize their wishes to travel to Taiwan, insiders announced.

It is estimated that more than 200,000 Taiwanese visitors are expected to come to Xiamen from Jinmen annually, as well as 500,000 mainlanders who will travel to Jinmen from Xiamen once the new regulations are implemented, according to insiders quoted by a recent news report in Hong Kong.

Xiamen has been preparing to open tour routes to Jinmen. The city will be developed to be the most important tourism base in the southeast coastal area once the tour route to Jinmen is available, said Zhang.

To boost tourism exchanges between the two sides as well as with foreign countries, the China National Tourism Administration and the Fujian provincial government, together with the Xiamen city government and the Fujian Tourism Bureau, will jointly organize the China (Xiamen) International Tour Festival from November 23 to 26 in Xiamen.

Participants at the event will include more than 600 officials from foreign tourism administrations and foreign tourism agencies from 13 countries and regions such as Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, and the Republic of Korea as well as the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions and Taiwan Province.

Also, more than 3,000 international and 4,000 domestic tourists are expected to visit during the festival period.

The China (Xiamen) International Fair for Tourist Commodities 2003 will also be held during the same period, and will display a wide variety of excellent tourist commodities and the abundant tourist resources available in Fujian Province.

The fair will not only enhance international exchanges and co-operation, but also promote the economic and trade development of different areas.

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