Chinese ship makes landmark voyage to Taiwan island

QUEMOY, (Taiwan): The first Chinese ship to make a legal, direct voyage to a Taiwan-held island in more than five decades docked at heavil...

QUEMOY, (Taiwan): The first Chinese ship to make a legal, direct voyage to a Taiwan-held island in more than five decades docked at heavily fortified Quemoy on Tuesday as part of rapprochement efforts.

The landmark trip to Quemoy island from the Chinese city of Xiamen by the China-registered vessel Gulangyu, or Piano Island, marked Taiwan opening its doors wider to mainland tourists and goods.

The boat ferried 97 people — 80 Quemoy-born Chinese nationals stranded on the mainland since the civil war split in 1949, 11 Chinese officials and six mainland reporters.

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The voyage was a largely symbolic step in efforts to lift a decades-old ban on direct trade and transport links between Taiwan and China as it merely decriminalises what Taipei considers smuggling — small-scale trade encouraged by Beijing since the early 1990s.

Last month, a Taiwan vessel made the first legal direct voyage to Xiamen from Quemoy in more than five decades.

Red banners with slogans to welcome the visitors lined Quemoy’s main streets. The visitors will pay respects to their ancestors before returning home on Friday.

Taiwan banned direct trade, travel and postal links with China in 1949 after Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalist troops were defeated by the Communists and fled into exile on the islands.