Beijingers flock to Taiwan as agents vie for business

A woman shows promotional materials at the Taiwan tourism office in Beijing. [Chen Xiaogen / for China Daily]

Beijing has witnessed the largest number of domestic travelers to enter Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan during the first four months of this year.

According to the exit and entry administration of the Beijing municipal public security bureau, as many as 77,000 Beijing residents applied to enter Taiwan, almost all successful, which was a 64 percent increase on the first four months of 2009.

"This increasing number of mainland tourists has generated intense competition among travel agencies and hotels in Taiwan," said Xiao Hong, manager of the Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan department at the China Travel Service Head Office (Beijing), on Tuesday.

Xiao said March and April were the best times to visit Taiwan because, in addition to off-peak prices, many Beijing travel agencies arranged special travel trips, such as photography and gourmet tours.

He also pointed out how the tourism procedure was being streamlined.

"The Taiwan Straits Traveling and Tourism Association opened its Beijing office today, which we consider great news because we can receive immediate updates on Taiwan's tourism market," Xiao said.

"The exit and entry administration now has offices in each district and county of Beijing, which has made the application process much more convenient."

At the same time, the number of applicants to enter Hong Kong and Macao reached 372,000, or 31 percent more than last year, the administration said.

"Bookings increased by as much as 40 percent this year, although our prices remained constant from last year," said Ding Ding, a press officer of Byecity.com - a tourism website.

Ding said most individual travelers chose to go shopping and visit Disneyland while in Hong Kong.

"We offered more Hong Kong tours this year, such as our combined Hong Kong and Bali trip. We have hundreds more clients now," Ding told METRO.

Additionally, 218,000 passports were issued in Beijing during the four-month period, almost a quarter more than January to April last year.

"2005 was a peak year for issuing passports in Beijing, so now is the time to renew them," said Lin Song, a police officer from the exit and entry administration.

He suggested local citizens apply for their paperwork in advance, in order to make their trips on time.