Reported by: Wong Wei-Jhih / County Government’s Report
The “Visit Xiamen; Travel Kinmen” program represents an upgraded Kinmen-Xiamen tour! The program features “recommended visits” jointly offered by 18 departments/agencies including the Tourism Department, Kinmen County Government. Representatives set off for Shenzhen, Zhuhai, and Macau of Guangdong on October 29th for a 5-day tourism promotion and travel agency exchange event.
Apart from Kinmen’s Tourism Department, other agencies participating in this promotion and exchange event across the strait included Fuzhou Office of the Taiwan Strait Tourism Association, Xiamen City Commission of Tourism Development, Xiamen City Taiwan Affairs Office, Kinmen Association of Travel Agents, Xiamen Tourism Association, Kinmen Hotel Association, Kinmen Tourist Souvenir Association, Kinmen Kaoliang Liquor (Xiamen) Trading Co., Ltd., Golden Fair International Travel Service Co., Ltd., Kinmen Branch of Top International Travel Service Co., Ltd., Dr. Wang Root of Moghania Products, Kinmen Uncle Beard Vermicelli Company, Ever Rich D.F.S Corporation, Golden Lake Hotel, Loving Kinmen Homestay, Arport Coast (Xiamen), travel agencies offering Kinmen cycling tours, and Xiamen travel agencies, etc.
Kinmen County Government revealed that Shenzhen is one of the origins from which Chinese independent travelers start their Taiwan journey, and also the first special economic zone in the mainland China. It is an energetic city with a high level of urbanization, internationalization, and fashion sense. Shenzhen records about 10 million visitor arrivals per year. Zhuhai is known as “the city of hundred islands” and renowned for its azure sea, verdant mountains, twittering birds, and fragrance of flowers. It is a major metropolis along the west coast of the Pearl River Delta connecting with Macau to the south, looking out to Hong Kong to the east, adjoining Zhongshan to the north and Jiangmen to the west. Zhuhai is the second largest gateway city to the mainland China, with as many as 90 million entry/exit travelers per year. And with launch of the “Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link” on September 23rd and the “Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge” on October 24th this year, citizens of Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Hong Kong, and Macau may now travel to Xiamen by express train, other than by air. The express train trip will take about 4 hours, and then it takes only 30 minutes to go from Xiamen to Kinmen by ferry. A day-trip circle is thus formed.
In the promotion event, specific scenes of “Travel Kinmen” were presented appealing to our multiple senses, including vision, hearing, speaking, tasting, touching, and feeling. The “Discover Kinmen Photography Show” allowed guests to see the beauty of Kinmen; the “Win a Gift – Creative Photo Zone” encouraged people attending the event to share the beauty of Kinmen through WeChat; the “Mooncake Game”, “Puzzle”, and “Wind Lion Painting” give guests a better understanding of Kinmen culture; the “Self-help Food Plaza” led guests to “A Bite of Kinmen” by inviting them to experience the “savor, mellowness, sweetness, and power” of Kinmen sorghum liquor, and taste other specialties such as peanut brittle and beef jerky; a Kinmen folklore performance “The Third Prince” was also staged in contrast to the local traditional performances “Surpluses Year after Year” and “Cantonese Folk Dance” for cultural exchange, heating up the atmosphere at the venue.
In addition, the County Government briefed travel agencies and the media in Shenzhen, Zhuhai, and Macau on the “Happy Kinmen” tour with three themes – Search the City, Island Fun, and Taiwan-Fujian Kinship. Linkage with Xiamen tour was further promoted, detailing the convenient travel route across the strait now and the prevalent ways of visiting Kinmen. Nearly 150 travel agents and pressmen on the spot have come to know, understand, and love Kinmen.
Moreover, Kinmen Association of Travel Agents has developed feature Kinmen-Xiamen tours according to the travel demands of Guangdong customers. Ten “Visit Xiamen; Travel Kinmen” dual-island travel routes are custom-made for Guangdong citizens around 10 different themes ranging from seaside recreation, classic exploration, cultural discovery, eco-friendly health preservation, battlefield experience, hidden delicacies, feature studies, convention and business, beauty sunset, to romantic honeymoon. Guangdong citizens will then be able to visit both Xiamen and Kinmen in one trip.
Kinmen and Guangdong have completely different tourist resources and characteristics, stated the County’s Tourism Department. The Minnan culture, overseas Chinese culture, liquor culture, and battle history are kept relatively in Kinmen, which also has a special duty-free policy. Guangdong, on the other hand, has a well-establish culture and history and a number of historic cities, national-grade cultural relics and attractions. In recent years, the procedures for mainland citizens visiting Kinmen have become much simplified, and with the launch of the Xiamen-Shenzhen Railway, as well as the opening of Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link in September and Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge in October, Kinmen has become reachable via Xiamen within a one-day trip distance for Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macau citizens. It is expected this promotion will attract Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macau citizens to experience the brand-new travel pattern of “Visit Xiamen; Travel Kinmen”.