Chinese Tourists Visit Outlying Island

Fireworks and dancing children in lion costumes greeted a boatload of Chinese tourists to a tiny Taiwanese island--the first such visit in more than 50 years. Many of the approximately 90 tourists were born on the island of Kinmen, or Quemoy, but moved to China before civil war divided them from their relatives for five decades.

The ferry’s arrival could signal that Beijing, despite early reluctance, is willing to go along with Taiwan’s new policy of allowing limited trade and shipping links between its outlying islands and China.