BEIJING / Shanghai - Travel agencies and tourists on the Chinese mainland have hailed a new move to allow individual tourists from pilot cities to travel to Taiwan from the second quarter this year.

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Shao Qiwei, head of the National Tourism Administration, leaked the news on Tuesday after a meeting in Taipei with Chiang Pin-kung, chairman of the Straits Exchange Foundation for cross-Straits tourism ties.

The Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council had confirmed the news in a media release on Wednesday.

Residents and travel companies in Beijing and Shanghai welcomed the news that the two metropolises would be among the pilot cities, Shao said.

Liao Qing, a 22-year-old Beijing resident who has been hoping for a long time to make a trip to Taiwan as an individual, said she was thrilled to learn that her dream would come true.

The backpacking fan said that the new policy would allow her to take a long bike ride around the island according to her own itinerary.

"I don't want to go with travel groups that always rush to scenic spots," she said. "I prefer to explore the beautiful island at my own pace."

Shanghai resident Shi Bin, 53, has just applied to travel to Taiwan. He said that although group travel was the only option at the moment he would prefer to go on his own because that would allow him more freedom.

Zhang Wei, general manager of the outbound travel department of China International Travel Service (CITS), told China Daily the agency was well prepared for the good news.

"We have been designing individual tour packages with our cooperation partners in Taiwan," she said. "Promotions for these products will be launched as soon as we receive permission."

The agency also intensified the training of its clerks to advise clients who want to visit the island as individuals.

According to Zhang, the opening of Taiwan to individual visitors from the mainland will create greater business opportunities in the market.

The mainland has become the largest source of tourists for Taiwan, with 1.23 million mainland tourists visiting the island last year, a 127.8-percent increase year-on-year, the island's tourist authority announced on Tuesday.

At the end of 2010, the Chinese mainland and Taiwan agreed to raise the limit on group tourists from the mainland to Taiwan from 3,000 to 4,000 a day.

According to earlier reports, there might be a cap of 500 people a day for individual tourists to Taiwan.

Liu Yinghao, director of outbound tourism to Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan for CITS, said the number of people heading to Taiwan would not surge "because of the quota limitation".

"What we've known for sure is that there will be a quota system to prevent a sudden big increase once the individual tourism market has been opened up," he said.

"The reasons are simple: reception facilities such as accommodation in Taiwan will be in short supply if too many people come at the same time."

But safety could be the biggest concern for people traveling around the island as individuals.

Yang Hong, a 51-year-old housewife in Shanghai who is going to Taiwan with her family next month, regards group travel as much safer than self-guided tours.

"There are just too many things to worry about if I'm organizing all by myself; and I trust the travel agency," she said.

Yang also mentioned that individual travelers have to be cautious about disasters such as typhoons from July to October.

A landslide on Taiwan's Suao-Hualien Highway triggered by Typhoon Megi on Oct 21, 2010, killed 20 mainland tourists.