Residents in Fujian Province may be looking forward to visiting the Jinmen and Mazu islands as tourists around the Spring Festival period in January next year, according to a tourism official of this coastal province.

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

Negotiations on travel to Taiwan islands have already reached what is considered a significant phase, local sources said.

Xiamen has been preparing to open tour routes to Jinmen.

To boost tourism exchanges between the two sides as well as with foreign countries, the China National Tourism Administration and the Fujian provincial government, together with the Xiamen city government and the Fujian Tourism Bureau, will jointly organize the China (Xiamen) International Tour Festival from November 23 to 26 in Xiamen.

Participants at the event will include more than 600 officials from overseas tourism administrations and tourism agencies from 13 countries and regions such as Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, and the Republic of Korea as well as the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions and Taiwan Province.

Also, more than 3,000 international and 4,000 domestic tourists are expected to visit during the festival period.

Fair organizers said that the China (Xiamen) International Fair for Tourist Commodities 2003 will also be held in Xiamen during the same period.

(China Daily November 6, 2003)