Kinmen (金門) & Matsu (馬祖) gateway to China

by Heritage | July 3, 2008 at 05:23 am | 190 views | 4 comments

Kinmen (金門) & Matsu (媽祖) gateway to China

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On the 20th of June 2008, the Taipei Times reported that Taiwan's outlying islands, Kinmen and Matsu, can be used by foreign nationals to enter China.

Effective immediately, Taiwanese and foreign nationals holding valid travel papers will be allowed to enter China via the outlying islands of Kinmen or Matsu, the Executive Yuan announced yesterday.

Previously, only certain Taiwanese residents were allowed to visit China via the “small three links.” They had to be either Kinmen or Matsu residents for more than six months, civil servants working on the islands or relatives and spouses of Kinmen or Matsu residents working in Taiwan. Taiwanese nationals meeting certain other requirements were also allowed to use the links.

I visited Kinmen a few years ago and tried to get a ticket to board a ferry to Xiamen in China’s southern Fujian Province (only 20mins, 2km to the coast). Of course they said no.

The opening of these routes will make accessing China from Taiwan and vice versa much cheaper, and much more interesting.

It should be noted though, that the Chinese government has not officially stated that foreign nationals (other than Taiwanese) can cross from China to Taiwan via the mini links. This should change in time, perhaps after the Olympics.

Over the past three years, an average of 300,000 Taiwanese people per year sailed to mainland China via the mini links, while only about 37,000 people returned to Kinmen or Matsu using the routes each year. In light of this disparity, Taiwan's Straits Exchange Foundation and and its mainland counterpart, the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits, will negotiate on this issue in their next round of talks, Lai said.