Shao Qiwei, director of China's National Tourism Administration, said Saturday that around 383,330 Chinese mainland tourists in 13,731 groups had visited Taiwan in one year since July 18 last year.

Shao said this at a round-table seminar held in Beijing marking the launch of the cross-Straits tourism market.

Under an agreement signed by the mainland-based Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits and the Taiwan-based Straits Exchange Foundation on June 13 last year, mainland tourists were permitted to visit Taiwan via weekend charter flights starting in July.

He said that more than 2.11 million tourists from Taiwan visited the Chinese mainland in the first half of this year, showing tourists' continued enthusiasm despite the financial crisis and the spread of A/H1N1 flu.

(Xinhua News Agency July 19, 2009)