Official tallies compiled by both sides of the Taiwan Straits show that Taiwanese made at least 3 million visits to the mainland in the year 2000, the reports said.

The reports also said visiting the mainland is no longer a craze confined to elderly retired soldiers who moved to Taiwan from the mainland at the end of the Chinese civil war in the late 1940s. It has instead gradually become a phenomenon of everyday life in Taiwan.

Taiwan people who go to the mainland for various reasons. While some people aspire to find a new lease on life for their traditional businesses or to launch new ventures, many youths want to study there, and others are seeking reunion with their family members there.

"Migrating to the mainland for work is a road of no return," a manager of a Taiwan factory in Guangdong province, who was identified as Chen, was cited as saying.

Chen recalled that his company sent him to the mainland five years ago to set up a production facility in Dongguan to save operational costs. "I accepted the assignment with a view to increasing my professional experience. But I didn't think at that time that I would stay long on the mainland," he said.

Nowadays, Chen said, return to Taiwan is no longer his favorite choice. "For one thing, our Taiwan headquarters has no suitable position for me. On the other hand, I'm afraid that I can no longer adapt myself to the life of a salaryman in Taiwan," he added.

A Taiwan student at a Shanghai medical college, identified himself as "Little Lee," said he chose to travel to Shanghai for study mainly because he could realize his dream to study medicine without the need to take part in highly competitive entrance examinations in Taiwan.

Nevertheless, Lee said, four years of life in Shanghai have changed many of his concepts and ideals. In fact, he no longer spends much time in school and instead devotes much of his energy to running an advertising agency.

(Xinhua 04/02/2001)