Limits On Chinese Mainland Tour Groups Visiting Taiwan Relaxed

The minimum size for tour groups from the mainland to Taiwan has been reduced to five people and the maximum stay has been increased to 15 days.

According to the existing agreement on cross-strait weekend charter flights and mainland tourists' traveling to Taiwan signed by the Chinese Mainland's Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits and the Taiwan-based Straits Exchange Foundation, only groups of 10 to 40 Chinese mainland tourists were allowed to travel to Taiwan with a maximum stay of 10 days for each group. Now, the minimum number of tourists in each group has been reduced to five and the maximum stay increased to 15 days. However the principle that Chinese mainland tourists traveling to Taiwan and returning from Taiwan must be in groups, still applies.

Statistics indicate that from October 2008, Taiwan hosted more than 4,000 tourists from mainland China per week, a major increase compared to the initial period of the agreement.

The Chinese Mainland's Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits and the Taiwan-based Straits Exchange Foundation have also reached an agreement that the number of cross-strait charter flights can increase from the original 36 flights a week, departing on weekends only, to 108 a week starting on any day. The number of departure points in mainland China has been increased from the original five to 21.