By Wu Jiao (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-06-13 08:22

A related rule states the agents should be selected from the 600 companies across the country that have already been approved for organizing outbound tours, Lin said.

China International Travel Service has yet to take any bookings for the trip due to the current uncertainty, he said.

"We are waiting for more details after the talks between the ARATS and SEF," he said.

Members of the public should seek information from authoritative tourism departments, rather than agents, he said.

But many would-be travelers are getting tired of waiting.

"I have been waiting too many years to travel to Taiwan after visiting so many other cities. It's the only part of the Chinese nation I haven't been to," Liu Shijun, a 65-year-old from Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu province, said.

Travel agents in Nanjing are not offering the service, so he is waiting for more information from the industry and the government, he said.

In 1949, Taipei banned direct trade, postal and transport services with the mainland and since then has limited the number of mainland tourist visits to the island.

But relations have warmed since 1987, when Taipei relaxed travel restrictions and since the early 1990s, with the liberalization of mainland-bound investments.

Every year, about 4 million people from Taiwan visit the mainland, about a quarter of total population. In contrast, just 250,000 mainlanders travel to the island each year.

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