Some travel agencies in Hefei, capital of East China's Anhui province, have allowed local residents to be registered as potential travelers to Taiwan.

The move came after officials from both the Chinese mainland and Taiwan announced on June 16 at the fifth Straits Forum that residents of Hefei, Shijiazhuang, Changchun, Nanning, Kunming and Quanzhou would be able to visit Taiwan individually starting on August 28.

'We received more than 100 phone calls today from clients asking about a trip to Taiwan. Some inquirers even paid a visit to the agency,' said an employee with a local travel service, which began to launch a variety of routes on June 18 allowing residents to 'tentatively' record themselves as tourists.

Official registration will not be granted until detailed measures are released by local authorities, the agent said. Being registered at present will not always guarantee registrants a trip to Taiwan in August.

Regulations on individual tours to Taiwan are being mapped out and are expected to be introduced in July, according to the Anhui Provincial Bureau of Tourism and the exit-entry administration bureau of the Hefei public security bureau.

The authorities said in drafting the regulations, they will learn from the experiences of mainland cities that have already allowed individual tourists to Taiwan.

Residents of 13 cities have been eligible to travel to the island individually, including Beijing and Shanghai.

(cnanhui.org)