国内英语新闻:Witnesses recall compatriotic feeling in people-to-people communication across Taiwan Strait

HONG KONG, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- "People-to-people communication is important as people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait is a family," Gao Binghan, a 83-year-old veteran from Taiwan said while making a thumb-up gesture.

At a commemorative event on Monday in Hong Kong for the 30th anniversary of the opening of people-to-people communication across the Taiwan Strait, Gao, as a witness, shared his story of bringing the ashes of Taiwan veterans back to the Chinese mainland for "reunion" with their families during the past three decades.

Gao recalled that in 1989 when he brought back the ashes of a veteran who died of blood cancer to the mainland, the veteran's 92-year-old mother knelt down in front of him, silent but in tears.

"Since the Taiwan authority agreed to open family visits to the mainland in 1987, I have brought ashes of over 100 veterans home," he said. "I can't hold back my tears even now when I recall those most memorable trips."

Another witness, Chiang Su-hui, who was working in Hong Kong as a journalist of a Taiwan newspaper in the 1980s, visited her elder sister in the mainland in 1984, three years before the opening of family visits across the Strait.

"I had never met my elder sister before, but when I went home, we held each other crying," she said. "I realized that people on both sides of the Strait are bonded by blood, so I started to write articles calling on the Taiwan authority to open family visits for Taiwan veterans to the mainland."

Chiang, who was hailed then as "a friend of the veterans," has been working for people-to-people communication across the Strait for decades in Hong Kong. She said: "The family bond between the two sides can not be cut off by any political factor. The communication across the Strait was launched in 1987, and has been expanded to a new level since then."

According to figures provided by organizers of the event, the total number of people travelling between Taiwan and the mainland has reached 117 million from 1987 to 2016, with 375,000 cross-Strait marriages.

Lan Haitao, general manager of the travel document department of China Travel Service Hong Kong Limited, said the design and technology for the travel permit have been improving during the past 30 years, with the aim of facilitating Taiwan residents' travel to the mainland.

"Since 1987, we have dealt with over 15 million applications for the Mainland Travel Permit for Taiwan Residents," he said. "We hope more Taiwan residents will come to the mainland for a trip."