Trailblazers for Cross-Straits Exchanges

    In March 1992, the provincial government proposed to go ahead with the "Three Links" by first realizing them between Fujian and Taiwan. The general idea was to start them on a non-governmental basis – first with direct shipping, and then proceed along little by little toward the achievement of the final targets. Beginning that year, shipping companies in Fujian and Taiwan held five seminars, discussing direct shipping issues and related business items. Meanwhile, special wharves for direct shipping started construction in Mawei, Xiamen and Meizhou Island.

    However, it was not until five years later that a major political breakthrough was made under the concerted effort of relevant organizations and shipping businesses across the Straits. Direct shipping between Fujian and Taiwan was realized on April 19, 1997, when container ships Shengda of the Fujian Xiamen Shipping Corporation and Huarong of the Fujian Foreign Trade Center Shipping Company sailed out of Xiamen and Fuzhou respectively toward Kaohsiung, bringing to a close a lapse of half a century. It was followed by the inauguration of irregular shipping services for general and bulk cargo on July 4, 1997. On January 2, 2001 direct passenger services went into operation between Fujian's coastal areas and Taiwan's Kinmen, Mazu and Penghu islands. On November 4, 2008, the mainland-based Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits and Taiwan-based Straits Exchange Foundation concluded the Cross-Straits Navigation Agreement, by which the mainland opens 63 and Taiwan 11 harbors for direct shipping for the time being. By then, the three decades of efforts had resulted in the normal operation of direct freight and passenger navigation across the Taiwan Straits.

    Direct shipping services have made things easy for travelers and businesspeople on both banks of the Straits and Fujian has been trying to improve its navigation facilities. On September 6, 2009, COSCO Star, a roll on/roll off ship, made its maiden voyage from Xiamen to Taichung, becoming the mainland's first roro that operates a regular service to Taiwan.

    The mainland province now operates direct container, general and bulk cargo and passenger services to Taiwan and maintains its leading role in the cross-Straits exchanges. Statistics show that from January to November of 2009, direct passenger voyages between Fujian and Taiwan amounted to 12,155, carrying a total of 1.277 million people across the Straits. The majority of these voyages – 12,130, carrying a total of 1.273 million passengers – were made between coastal Fujian and the three Taiwan islands of Kinmen, Mazu and Penghu; the two figures represented increases of 27.39 percent and 34.43 percent in the number of voyages and passengers respectively over the same period of 2008.

    Now the West Bank development has gone into full swing, using the deep "passages" that the provincial transportation sector has laid across the Straits and over the complex terrains of Fujian Province.