Sources released by Xiamen Customs indicated that approximately 36,000 Taiwanese traveled between the Taiwan-controlled Jinmen ( Quemoy) Island off southeast China's Fujian province and Fujian's Xiamen port, up 9.2 times over the same period last year.

The figure represents the biggest passenger transport by sea since 2001, when the sea route between the two islands opened to passenger boats.

Direct shipping from Jinmen to the Chinese mainland had been prohibited by Taiwan authorities after 1949, and the Taiwanese were not allowed to travel directly by sea or air between the two islands for about five decades.

But since shipping services between Jinmen and Xiamen were launched in 2001, passengers from Taiwan may shuttle to the Chinese mainland via the Jinmen-Xiamen route.

About 3,000 families, or about one-third of Jinmen's residents, have been to Xiamen, some of them even buying houses and starting up shops, while others go to visit their relatives.

At least half a million Taiwanese live and work on the Chinese mainland as investors or managers, and most of them have to return to Taiwan on holidays or to visit their relatives via Hong Kong or Macau.

(eastday.com April 21, 2003)