A direct sea link was launched on Tuesday between the port of
Quanzhou in East China's Fujian Province and Taiwan's Penghu Island.
The move brought to five the number of ports on Fujian's coast that are allowed to operate cargo and passenger shipping routes to Taiwan.
The other four Fujian ports are Mawei in Fuzhou,
Meizhou in Putian,
Xiamen and Zhongyin in Zhangzhou.
Zhongyin Port handles cargo only and
Meizhou Port transports passengers only.
The other three ports deal with both cargo and passenger shipping.
Direct sea links across the Taiwan Straits save both money and time, said a Taiwanese businessman who only gave his family name Zeng.
A recent poll showed that 64 per cent of Taiwanese would like to see comprehensive direct cross-Straits sea links as soon as possible.
Zhen Jiannan - director of an association of Taiwanese businesses in the Fujian provincial capital
Fuzhou - said he chose to invest in
Fuzhou 10 years ago. At that time, he thought direct links would shortly be implemented in trade, transportation and postal services across the Taiwan Straits and thus lower his costs.
But the links have still not been implemented, to the great detriment of his business.
Owing to the lack of direct transport, cargo ships from both sides have to travel via ports in other regions, raising transport costs and wasting time.
The Japanese port of Ishigaki, 270 kilometres from Taiwan island, is a major transfer port for freighters from the mainland and Taiwan. It receives more than 2,000 cargo ships each year and earns as much as 1.08 million Japanese yen (US$9,230) in service charges from each ship.
Some Taiwanese entrepreneurs have lobbied for change due to the inconvenience of the stalled cross-Straits transport.
During this year's Dragon Boat Festival in June, over 200 Taiwanese entrepreneurs and their families sailed directly from Xiamen, a port city in Fujian, to Jinmen Island, organized by the
Xiamen association of Taiwanese businesses.
One Taiwan businessman said: "We dared to sail directly because the trial direct sea links between Jinmen, Mazu and coastal areas of Fujian Province have been implemented for more than a year."
