Taiwan Strait to Open for Cruising Sailors

7:59 PM Thu 20 Nov 2008 GMT

'Keelung Harbour - around 2,000 yachts in Taiwan will now be able to cross to China' .

The Taiwan Strait is a body of water more known for its military tension than for its appeal to cruising sailors, but in a welcome move, yachts from Taiwan and China (as well as cruise ships) will be soon able to travel across the Taiwan Strait for the first time in recent history.

This is thanks to the agreements signed during the talks between Strait Exchange Foundation (SEF) Chairman Chiang Pin-kung and Association of Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARAT) Chairman Chen Yunlin earlier this month.

Taiwan Strait - .. .

In an additional statment that told of the uncertainties which accompanied this agreement, officials at Taiwan's Keelung Harbor Bureau warned the government would need to regulate illegal activities that may occur at sea. Maskot Hsu, director of the bureau's shipping and navigation department, confirmed that the agreement would allow individual yacht owners to travel across the Strait.

There are around 2,000 yachts in the Taiwan. Hsu said that Keelung Harbor had designated areas for yachts from China to get supplies, but they would not be allowed to dock long-term at the harbor.

The Taiwan Strait or Formosa Strait is a 180-km-wide strait between mainland China and Taiwan. The strait, part of the South China Sea connecting to East China Sea to the northeast, has been the theatre for several military confrontations between the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China since the last days of the Chinese Civil War in 1949. That's when the Kuomintang (KMT) forces led by Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek retreated across the Strait and relocated its government on its final stronghold of Taiwan.

Fujian province on the mainland is to the west of the strait, while important islands like Quemoy, Amoy, Hainan Island, and the Matsu Islands are nearby. To the east are the west coast of Taiwan and the Pescadores. The island fishermen use the strait as a fishing resource, and the Minjiang and Jiulong Rivers empty into the strait.

by Shelley Shan,Taipei Times/Sail-World

Click on thumbnails to enlarge and find more photos: