Travelers Just Can’t Get There (Hong Kong) From Here (Taiwan)

It’s just a 75-minute flight to Hong Kong from here, but not for citizens of Taiwan. By order of their government, they cannot go directly to Hong Kong, but must stop someplace else first.

Thus it is that a citizen books a flight to the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand or Japan to connect with a flight to Hong Kong.

The government’s reason for ordering this roundabout routing is to discourage a growing number Taiwan citizens from slipping across the Hong Kong border to visit Communist China, rival to the Nationalist Chinese government of Taiwan.

It means that citizens of Taiwan must fly, for example, two hours to Manila, three hours to Singapore or four hours to Tokyo to connect with flights for Hong Kong.

One of the most popular routings has become a package tour that goes from Taipei to Tokyo to Hong Kong and back to Taipei for the equivalent of $450. The fare for a direct flight from Taipei to Hong Kong, which foreigners can take, is about $200.

Some travelers purchase tickets to Bangkok, Thailand, or to Singapore on flights that stop first in Hong Kong. Once in Hong Kong, they “jump” plane, getting off with their carry-on luggage, but losing the cost of the portion of their fare to the plane’s final destination.

One of the most unrealistic routes, they say, takes tourists from Taipei to Okinawa where they catch a flight that stops in Taipei on its way to Hong Kong.

Authorities here have no statistics on the number of Taiwanese who have visited China but they say 109,075 Taiwanese visited Hong Kong last year, up 10.45% from 1983.

Kao Yin, manager of Peking’s Overseas Chinese Travel Service, said that the number of Taiwan visitors exceeded 3,800 in 1984, up 26% from the previous year, and he expects the total to increase this year.

Several Taiwanese who have been to China said that most of them visit to satisfy their curiosity or to see relatives from whom they have been separated since 1949, when the Nationalist government fled to Taiwan following its defeat by the Communists.