A Chinese mainland tourism inspection group will leave for Taiwan Friday to pave the way for opening tourist routes to the island, a mainland official announced here Thursday.

"At the invitation of the Taiwan Visitors Association, head of the China Tourism Association Shao Qiwei will lead a mainland tourism inspection group to Taiwan to conduct business investigations," said Zhang Jianzhong, spokesman of the China National Tourism Administration.

The tour, said Zhang, aims to implement the consensus reached between Hu Jintao, general secretary of the Central Committee of Communist Party of China (CPC), and the former Kuomintang party Chairman Lien Chan from Taiwan and the consensus reached between Hu and the People First Party Chairman James Soong from Taiwan in the first half of this year.

A major part of the consensus is about promoting exchanges across the Taiwan Straits.

Zhang said emphasis of the inspection is on tourist sites, hotels, transport, shopping and entertainment facilities, service levels and safety conditions.

He said that during the trip which will run through November 6, mainland tourism personnel will exchange views with their Taiwan counterparts to facilitate the early opening of Chinese mainland-Taiwan tourist routes.

Source: Xinhua