Kinmen County, a Taiwan-administered group of islands off the China coast, began offering landing permits to visitors from Mainland China on Thursday.
The permits are designed to let tourists from China visit the islands without having to go through the process of applying for permission to enter Taiwan proper.
At a ceremony on Thursday, newly inaugurated Kinmen County Magistrate Chen Fu-hai said that Kinmen is a leading point for experimentation in the development of peaceful cross-strait relations.
He said that the county government hopes to set up more tourist attractions and invest money to develop marine tourism.
Chen also addressed fears that the simplified immigration process to the islands, with their heavy military presence, could pose threats to Taiwan’s national security. He said that local authorities have taken precautionary measures, setting up a system of surveillance and a call center where hotels and bed and breakfast operators can report suspicious activity.
The ten Mainland visitors to arrive in Kinmen under the new landing permit system were given a variety of special gifts to commemorate the occasion.