Potentially this could be about 11 trillion RMB Taiwan could generate from tourism. So what’s holding Taiwan back?
Potentially this could be about 11 trillion RMB Taiwan could generate from tourism. So what’s holding Taiwan back?[/quote]
Taiwan independence. 
What do you mean what’s holding them back? I’ve been seeing TV reports on the first wave of Chinese tourists all week. Still don’t really get what is happening? Have the rules been relaxed?
Was watching the TV news yesterday, and saw a tour group of Chinese tourists being rather surprised when it was pointed out to them that a whole lot of the souvenirs and specialty items that were bought in Taiwan… had been made in China.
Don’t know what that all means, in the greater global scale of things, and don’t really care either, but Taiwan does seem a long way to come to buy back your own stuff.
The other great highlights for these Chinese tourists appeared to have been being shown the art of chewing the betel-nut, and having their picture taken with that hideous old hag (She Chwin May - or something, my pinyin sucks, and I’m listening to music and can’t properly hear the pronunciation my SO is shouting at me from the next room) who was popular a couple years back because of her hat, and who has recently been on the news again rubbing the chest of her handsome boyfriend who is 20-something years younger than her.
Maybe they got to experience the superb buffet at that golf resort mentioned in another thread. You can hear the tour operators stifling snorts of laughter at the front of the bus. “Yeah, this is a, er… 5 star resort! Have some cheese! It’s really delicious! Tastes real good with the sea cucumber, which is a delicacy and not at all a shit-eating bottom-dwelling sea-slug that breathes through its bottom when feeding. Would you like a plastic cup to expectorate into? Have two! One for the kids!”
Over the years, I met a few mainland Chinese people visiting Taiwan, most of them here for business reasons, not as tourists.
When asked what they think about Taiwan, they are not very enthousiastic. They think of Taipei to be an old expensive city, not much to see, not much to do, nothing like their Shanghai or Beijing. Nevertheless, they always like the food and the people in Taiwan.
I guess many mainland Chinese are curious about Taiwan, but won’t visit a second time.
There was an item on TV a couple of hours ago about PRC tours in Taiwan and one of the big attractions is binglang girls. So the buses pull over and scantily-clad binglang girls board the buses and sell their stuff to the tourists on the buses.
With one billion potential customers Taiwan can do without repeats. 
T-Shirt seen:
[b]“Mom & Pop went to Taiwan and all I got was this t-shirt made in Guangzhou!”[/b]
Potentially this could be about 11 trillion RMB Taiwan could generate from tourism. So what’s holding Taiwan back?[/quote]
I think most of the visitors will be the 1million plus Taiwanese working in China (mostly shanghiw Beijing area) but could return easliy on the weekends to visit there familes here instead of having to fly through Hong kong. I think Rich Chinese would rather go to Singapore or Japan.
I can’t understand why Chinese would be particularly interested in visiting Taiwan. There are so many destinations in China itself that have more to offer. Taiwan simply lacks the infrastructure to handle a large increase in the number of tourists visiting Taiwan. There is also the problem of no direct flights which makes it more expensive and less convenient for Chinese to visit Taiwan. Regardless of the politics involved it simply doesn’t seem to make much sense.
I talked to a Chinese who recently visited Taiwan over the May 1st holiday. Visited all the tourist areas, including Sun-Moon lake, and she thought Taiwan was rather run-down.
In the future, Mainland may give up on Taiwan. It might be a drain on the treasury.
It’s curiousity mostly. And of course, the fact that it’s so damned hard to visit. The rarer things are more valued, no?
I suppose it can be termed politicotourism.
Curiosity coming pretty expensive. Cheaper to go to almost anywhere else in SEA than Taiwan. There are some very curious members of my wife’s family who have travelled widely, but have no intention of going to Taiwan. Er, I guess the wife’s reports back to base weren’t that flattering. Oops. Although one chap did say he was there a long time ago as part of a “cultural” delegation (ie seat on the bus sold to the highest bidder) to Taiwan and wasn’t that impressed. The rest of them couldn’t give a monkey’s and would rather go to Europe or Australia or America etc.
I fear Taiwan will simply get the people who couldn’t afford to go somewhere nice. Especially with the current policy of fleecing the tourists blind. Perhaps it’s a sort of revenge? I’d like to see them try to out-fleece a bunch of mainland tourists. It would be a hell of a spectacle. I’d buy tickets.
For sure that’s nothing wrong, as they are just grateful to visit their own cousins over the Taiwan strait. Even the communist North Koreans are more open in arranging the get-together with their southern brethen. And we have our inert DPP Govt who does nothing, but good at putting obstacles.
I dunno, the Cantos here in HK are doing a brisk trade in fleecing mainlanders. Unbelievable tales of folly almost on a daily basis. The classic was the family that paid oodles too much for a camera, prompting the SCMP to compensate them and pay for their return trip to prove what a nice place HK really is. They were duly fleeced all over again, and far worse than the first time, at which point, the SCMP dropped the story.
Tales of mainland travellers in Europe, especially Italy and Spain, would suggest they’re travelling under the misguided perception people outside China are mostly decent and honest. The gypsies and Eastern European pickpockets love them dearly. It’s very tempting to get some of that action while it’s going!
HG
I dunno, the Cantos here in HK are doing a brisk trade in fleecing mainlanders. Unbelievable tales of folly almost on a daily basis. The classic was the family that paid oodles too much for a camera, prompting the SCMP to compensate them and pay for their return trip to prove what a nice place HK really is. They were duly fleeced all over again, and far worse than the first time, at which point, the SCMP dropped the story.
Tales of mainland travellers in Europe, especially Italy and Spain, would suggest they’re travelling under the misguided perception people outside China are mostly decent and honest. The gypsies and Eastern European pickpockets love them dearly. It’s very tempting to get some of that action while it’s going!
HG[/quote]
Oh hell - you’ve hit it right on the spot -
Most of these Mainlanders have this idea that everything imported (进口) is so much better. They would pay a premium for the same shampoo in HK because they’re convinced it “better” than the stuff at home.
They would find out it was made in China after reading the fine print! :roflmao:
philbert - I think that almost everything made outside China is better… 
Even the products you can buy in HK are way less good then the originals, I can tell you that… you want an example - I have a box of Twinings Darjeeling Loose tea I bought in London, and another I bought in HK (same Darjeeling Loose Tea). Well, let us say that the second will never make the Twinings name any good. Unless I can find originals, I am not tempted to buy things I would normally buy in Europe.
As for what TW has to offer, my POV is that at the level the infrastructure of the country is, they can only dream of getting these kind of tourists. I was here before moving to Taiwan and was least impressed (specially not many good turists like to pay to be in an unconfortable country with constants earthquakes). In fact, despite being an island, there are not many good beaches around (maybe that is why they don’t know how to swim), nor the good ones have good infrastructures on them - and I know that because I am from a country that lives on tourism …
Philbert,
there’s another reason why things sold outside China are indeed better.
Factories that manufacture products in China for export are often under better QC requirements, primarily because the customer selling the goods overseas wants it that way. Many businesses in China still haven’t gotten used to the idea of branding and customer loyalty (but the leading ones are rapidly learning), so they may not care about quality products that bring back a happy customer. (all this of course depends on what kind of products we’re talking about)
Chinese domestic consumption is a very new thing, and foreign execs couldn’t care less about brand quality 3-5 years ago. So, of course quality suffered.
But then Chinese consumers got rich, and foreign companies are quickly being forced to come up to speed. For example, one notable case 2 years ago… the owner of a BMW with serious quality issues (even more than usual!) used a donkey cart to tow the thing around the city, smashing it with a giant hammer as they went. It made all the papers, and affected BMW market share significantly. As the Chinese consumer becomes ever more significant, companies selling to Chinese consumers will focus on quality accordingly.
As far as visiting Taiwan goes; I have to do it some day, just so I can keep my wife-to-be happy by visiting her extended family. As far as tourist spots go, I’ve heard great things about the night markets and look forward to checking it out myself.
The Chinese traditionally vacation very differently from Americans and Europeans. The Chinese tourist typically doesn’t pay money so that they can travel and “relax” while on vacation. Even in Hainan, there are far more Chinese getting photographed in front of the calligraphy at tianya haijiao than actually swimming in the oceans. The Chinese tourist at this point in time is focused on learning/seeing as much as they can of the world, which means tours tightly packed with historical/cultural monuments (as well as shopping). Taiwan does have plenty of the latter. And even if only 1 out of every 100 urban Chinese were interested in checking out Taiwan, which is probably a huge under-estimate of latent demand, that still translates into about 5 million potential tourists per year.
On top of that, new ones are born every day.