A group of tourists from Fujian waved goodbye to the people seeing them off on Tuesday morning at Xiamen, a harbor city in the southern part of the province, before they made their first trip from the Chinese mainland to Jinmen, an islet under the jurisdiction of the province of Taiwan.

The journey takes one hour, and three groups of 55 tourists will stay in Jinmen for three days and two nights.

As a port city on the Taiwan Straits, Xiamen will take advantage of its proximity to promote tour routes to Jinmen.

There are more than 4,000 people living in Fujian who were born in Jinmen. Most were refugees who escaped when Jinmen was invaded by the Japanese army in October 1937.

They have been prevented from going home since the mainland and Taiwan were separated in 1949 after China's War of Liberation (1946-49).

Fujian, with a population of more than 34 million, will be the largest potential tourist resource for Jinmen, said a provincial official.

Five mainland travel agents have now been approved for organizing package tours with four designated hotels and seven travel agencies in Jinmen.

It was reported that the price for a three-day package tour to Jinmen and Mazu islets from Fujian is 1,990 yuan (US$240) per person.

(China.org.cn December 8, 2004)