Martin Li

    LOCAL travel agencies and residents have been inspired by recent reports that Taiwan might open self-guided tours to another eight mainland cities, including Shenzhen.

    Self-guided tours to Taiwan are now open only to Beijing, Shanghai and Xiamen on the mainland. Shenzhen tourists can only visit Taiwan by taking part in a package tour.

    “Shenzhen has several advantages to be eligible for the self-guided tour to Taiwan. The shortest flight from the city to Taiwan is only 90 minutes. In addition, there are more than 60 (regular) flights departing for Taiwan from the airports in Shenzhen and Hong Kong,” said Liu Bi with Shenzhen China International Travel Service, one of four local travel agencies qualified to arrange package tours to Taiwan.

    Shenzhen is a major source of mainland tourists for Taiwan. A total of 131,000 Shenzhen tourists have visited Taiwan since July 2008 and 67,000 Shenzhen tourists visited Taiwan in 2010, a 177-percent increase from 2009, according to the city’s culture, sports and tourism bureau.

    Song Ding, a researcher with the Shenzhen-based China Development Institute, said Shenzhen should qualify for access to self-guided Taiwan tours because people-to-people communications between Shenzhen and Taiwan are very frequent.