Taiwan Braces for Cross-Strait Tourists

Travel Blog  •  Julia Ross  •  07.03.08 | 11:01 AM ET

imageOh, to be on the streets of Taipei this weekend. The first planeloads of Chinese tourists allowed under a new cross-strait travel agreement are set to arrive in Taiwan tomorrow, and the Taiwanese are bracing for culture shock. Reports Reuters: “Taiwan citizens, who are influenced heavily by hyper-polite Japan, fear Chinese will yell, spit or cut in on queues, all of which are an anathema to many Taiwanese.”

Taipeiers like to joke that they can spot a Mainlander from a mile away; with an influx of up to 3,000 Chinese tourists per day now expected on the island, that challenge may just shrink to within, uh, spitting distance.

Photo by Julia Ross.

Tags: Asia, China, Taiwan

Julia Ross is a Washington, DC-based writer and frequent contributor to World Hum. She has lived in China and Taiwan, where she was a Fulbright scholar and Mandarin student. Her writing has appeared in the Washington Post, Time, Christian Science Monitor, Plenty and other publications. Her essay, Six Degrees of Vietnam, was shortlisted for "The Best American Travel Writing 2009."


1 Comment for Taiwan Braces for Cross-Strait Tourists

HS 07.06.08 | 11:57 PM ET

Oh, the _Taiwanese_ are put off by yelling, spitting and cutting in line?  That’s not what I recall from my three years on the isle of betel nut chewing.  Taiwanese are less uncouth that the mainlanders (who isn’t?), but I really never saw any evidence of an orderly Japanese influence there.  Who knows, though?  Maybe the mainland visitors will return across the straits a little more polite.

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