TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Kinmen Deputy County Mayor Li Wen-liang (李文良) said the county welcomes China’s plan to allow Shanghai residents to visit and hopes the central government will support transport arrangements.
The comments came after China’s culture and tourism ministry said Shanghai residents would soon be allowed to visit Kinmen and Matsu to promote cross-strait exchanges, CNA reported Wednesday. Li said the policy would benefit local tourism and that the county is ready to receive more visitors.
Li said the remodeled Kinmen ferry terminal is in trial operations and has an annual capacity of about 3 million to 3.5 million passengers. He said existing immigration and port services should be sufficient to meet higher demand, per UDN.
However, Li said ferry services remain inadequate despite sufficient terminal capacity. He said current sailing schedules would struggle to absorb additional passenger flows and called for cross-strait coordination to add more routes and sailings.
“Kinmen welcomes the gradual recovery of cross-strait tourism policies and has completed necessary preparations,” Tourism Department Director Hsu Chi-hsin (許績鑫) said. He said the county hopes to receive Shanghai visitors as soon as possible and accelerate the recovery of “mini-three-links” tourism.
The tourism department said Kinmen’s local economy is closely tied to visitor numbers under the mini-three-links framework. Officials said the county plans to hold tourism promotion events in Shanghai this year to attract more visitors, per Liberty Times.
Kinmen County Councilor Tung Sen-pao (董森堡) said authorities should plan ahead to avoid pressure on local daily life. He said encouraging small group tours could help maintain travel quality and reduce transport and management problems.
