Deal to boost mainland visitors to Taiwan

Another four cities on the Chinese mainland have been approved to grant individual tourist visits to Taiwan, according to a deal reached between the two sides on Wednesday.

The mainland's Association for Tourism Exchange Across the Taiwan Straits and Taiwan's Taiwan Strait Tourism Association reached the deal to allow residents from Ji'nan, Xi'an, Fuzhou and Shenzhen to visit Taiwan as individual tourists starting Aug 28.

Shao Qiwei, president of the Beijing-based Association for Tourism Exchange Across the Taiwan Straits, said another 11 mainland cities in Zhejiang, Jiangxi and Guangdong provinces on the western side of the Taiwan Straits will be allowed to send individual tourists to Taiwan's Jinmen, Penghu and Matsu islands starting Aug 28.