‘Explosive’ and ‘phenomenal’ are the sort of adjectives that best describe the growth of Chinese tourism to Taiwan over the past two years. From having no regular direct cross-Strait flights before 2008 and just 100,000 tourists that year, China became the biggest source of tourists for Taiwan with over a million visitors last year.

Yet an even bigger transformation may be in store this year, as China appears to have finally agreed to allow travelers to visit Taiwan individually rather than as part of a big tour groups.

Wang Yi, head of China’s Taiwan Affairs Office, told reporters on Wednesday that “provided all preparation work is complete, we will fight hard for the free individual traveler scheme to launch in cities such as Beijing and Shanghai in the second quarter of this year”.