Xiamen City in east China greeted Jinmen County of Taiwan Province with a display of fireworks Thursday night, the first day of the traditional Chinese lunar New Year or Spring Festival.

Xiamen and Jinmen face each other across the sea. The two started festive greetings by letting off fireworks in 1987, but Jinmen has stopped the tradition due to a lack of funds.

Zhang Changping, mayor of Xiamen, wished a happy new year to Jinmen people in a telephone conversation with Li Zhufeng, head of Jinmen county.

Li said he had seen the dazzling fireworks in Xiamen and promised to convey Zhang's greetings to Jinmen people.

Li invited Zhang to visit Jinmen and was looking forward to meeting the Xiamen mayor in Jinmen this year.

Xiamen is less than five kilometers from Jinmen (minor). The two places maintain the only direct transportation across the Straits.

A record number of passengers traveled by ship between Xiamen and Jinmen from Jan. 9 to 21 before the Spring Festival, which falls on Thursday. Already 11,156 Taiwan people have traveled between the two places, up more than 100 percent from the 5,036 during last year's pre-Spring Festival period.

The direct sea route was as easy and convenient as "walking from the living room to the kitchen in one's home," as many Taiwan people describe the journey in southern Fujian dialect.

Shanghai and Taipei succeeded in arranging charter flights for Taiwan business people to return home for the Spring Festival last year. But the widely used service was canceled this year. All Taiwanese in the mainland were allowed to take the Xiamen-Jinmen direct sea route this year.

About 5,000 Taiwanese in Shanghai, Ningbo and Wenzhou cities of Zhejiang Province, and Shantou City of Guangdong Province chose the sea route to save money and time, said Wu Jianzhong, head of Xiamen's Taiwanese investment association.

(Xinhua News Agency January 23, 2004)