Taiwan

Cross-sea bridge offers a route to prosperity

By Peng Yining and Hu Meidong (China Daily)
Updated: 2011-01-05 08:05

Popular port

Zhou Qiuxing, 46, repairs a boat on Pingtan island. He bought two vessels last year with six others from Dong'ao village after quitting his job with a Taiwan employer. [China Daily]

Pingtan was first founded as a cross-Straits commerce port during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). Today, islanders have more than 200,000 relatives in Taiwan.

Lin Wenmin, a 74-year-old retired county official, said he remembers seeing businessmen rowing white boats across the Straits in the 1940s. "They sold fish, and bought sugar and rice from Taiwan," he said.

Despite a ban on "bartering" in the 1980s, Lin said Pingtan fishermen still exchanged their hauls for Taiwan products like watches and umbrellas, which at the time were still "rare and precious on the mainland".

"We rowed our boat and exchanged our goods," recalled Yu Changmao, who now works as a dock watchman. "I once bought a watch with 25 kg of fish."

Pingtan's Dong'ao dock was one of the Chinese mainland's earliest "Taiwan ship mooring points" and since the late 1970s has welcomed 20,000 merchant fleets and 100,000 residents from Taiwan.

At its peak, more than 30 ships were arriving every day, prompting local authorities to build hotels and office buildings on the dock.

"People became rich trading with Taiwan businessmen," said Lin, "but in the early 1990s cooperation was suspended for security reasons and the boom times ended."

By 2000, just two or three Taiwan vessels were arriving a day. "Now we're lucky if we get one every two to three days," said Chen Gongliang, who sells marine products in Pingtan.

The hotels and offices built in the 1980s gradually fell into disrepair. A slogan painted on the side of a building that reads "Welcome, Taiwan Compatriots" has all but faded from sight.

"Pingtan's development has been held back as it has been considered a frontier defense area for a long time," said Wu Guogong, a former member of the People's Liberation Army from Pingtan.

In 1996, Beijing conducted a military exercise in waters off Pingtan "to show that the country has the ability to strive for reunification across the Straits, and guard the country's sovereign and territorial integrity", according to a report from Xinhua News Agency at the time.

"Taiwan is five hours away by sail boat," said Yu. "Sometimes a strong wind would blow our boats to the shallow sea around Taiwan and we'd have to row furiously as we weren't allowed to go within 16 sea miles (30 km) of the island."

Future plans

According to plans published by Pingtan county, the cooperation zone is aimed at attracting Taiwan investors and residents through direct trade and shipping services.

There will be a high-tech industrial zone, a chemicals industry along the harbor and an agriculture area, including farms for Taiwan producers, in the north.

Officials are also applying for more preferential policies, including a cross-Straits duty-free market that would appeal to business groups and travelers.

More than 200 businesses worldwide are already exploring new opportunities in Pingtan, while one street now boasts more than 20 newly built budget hotels.

"The cooperation project must bring more visitors," said a Pingtan businessman surnamed Jiang, who explained that he has just opened a decoration company because "once large-scale construction projects start there will be many decoration businesses".

As news of the zone has spread, property prices rocketed from 3,000 yuan to 7,000 yuan per square meter, said publicity official Li Yiren.

However, the project is already helping to change residents' attitudes. Taxi driver Wan Hong, 29, said he had been planning to move his family away before the 2009 announcement but decided to stay as "it looks like a great opportunity".

"I don't care if the project makes a breakthrough in the cross-Straits relationship, I only care how it will change my life," he said.

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