The delegation is from Taiwan's outlying islands of Jinmen, which are just a few kilometers off the Chinese coast.

代表團來自距離中國海岸僅幾公里的臺灣金門離島。

Louise Watt is following the story for us from Taipei.

路易絲-瓦特正在臺北為我們跟蹤報道。

Louise, why is Jinmen sending this delegation now?

路易絲，金門為什麼現在才派代表團來？

Jinmen is close to the Chinese coast and it's particularly dependent on China for trade.

金門靠近中國沿海，貿易尤其依賴中國。

After more than three years of no Chinese tourists, they want them back.

在三年多沒有中國遊客之後，他們希望中國遊客回來。

Now a delegation headed by officials from Jinmen's local government, with a whole load of representatives from tourism in tow, they're heading to Beijing.

現在，以金門地方政府官員為團長的代表團，帶著一大批旅遊部門的代表，正向北京進發。

And tomorrow, they're expected to arrive this afternoon, but tomorrow that's when the meeting takes place.

明天，他們預計今天下午抵達，但明天就是會議召開的時間。

They're expected to meet with the head of the Chinese government agency that's in charge with relations with Taiwan.

他們將會見中國政府負責對臺關係的機構負責人。

Now China stopped its citizens making tour groups, making visits as part of tour groups to Taiwan in 2020.

現在，中國在 2020 年停止其公民組團、組團訪問臺灣。

Those restrictions are still largely in place.

這些限制在很大程度上仍然有效。

And the delegation says it wants to press Beijing to allow Chinese tourists to come back to Jinmen as soon as possible.

代表團表示，希望向中國政府施壓，儘快允許中國遊客重返金門。

And Jinmen's legislator, Chen Yujian, she's also part of this delegation.

金門的立法委員陳玉堅也是代表團成員之一。

She says that she hopes that Chinese tour groups will be allowed back to Jinmen before China's big holiday, the National Day holiday in October.

她說，她希望中國旅遊團能在 10 月份的國慶長假之前獲准返回金門。

That's when millions of Chinese travel.

這正是數百萬中國人外出旅遊的時候。

Chen, she is the legislator of the main, she belongs to the main opposition party, the KMT.

陳，她是主要的立法委員，屬於主要的反對黨--國民黨。

And she says that she wants to revive ties between the two sides after a series of incidents in the waters around Jinmen that have brought ties between Taiwan and China worse than they already were.

她說，在金門附近海域發生的一系列事件使臺灣和中國的關係雪上加霜之後，她希望恢復雙方的關係。

In one example, two Chinese nationals were killed in a chase with the Taiwanese Coast Guard.

其中一個例子是，兩名中國公民在與臺灣海岸警衛隊的追逐中喪生。

Taiwan recently handed back their bodies to China and China then released some fissures that it had been holding in detention.

臺灣最近將他們的遺體交還給了中國，而中國隨後也釋放了一些被扣押的裂縫人員。

So Chen says she wants to build on this positive momentum in relations, in her words, to get tourists back to Jinmen.

是以，陳說她希望在這種積極的關係勢頭上再接再厲，用她的話說，就是讓遊客回到金門。

And so Louise, why is Jinmen pushing for Chinese tourists to return rather than Taiwan as a whole?

那麼路易絲，金門為什麼要推動中國遊客迴流，而不是整個臺灣？

Well, China and Taiwan have had restrictions on tourist visiting.

嗯，中國大陸和臺灣對遊客的訪問都有限制。

That's because of the pandemic and it's also because of the general poor state of their relations.

這是因為大流行病，也是因為他們的關係普遍不佳。

Well, Taiwan last year, it did lift some of its restrictions on Chinese tourists visiting.

臺灣去年確實取消了對中國遊客的一些限制。

It's already called on China multiple times to allow its tourists to visit Taiwan.

它已多次呼籲中國允許其遊客訪問臺灣。

But so far, China has only allowed some tourists to visit another group of outlying islands, Matsu, and they saw the first Chinese tour groups in several years visit in June.

但迄今為止，中國只允許一些遊客訪問另一個離島群--馬祖島。

So Jinmen, like Matsu, it's geographically close to China and it has lots of family links.

是以，金門和馬祖一樣，在地理位置上靠近中國，而且有很多家族聯繫。

But being that close, historically, it was on the front lines of conflict.

但是，從歷史上看，這裡離衝突的前線如此之近。

Back in the 1950s, it saw intense bombardment from Mao Zedong's Chinese forces.

上世紀 50 年代，毛澤東的中國軍隊曾對其進行過猛烈轟炸。

And today, people in Jinmen see themselves as close to China, not just geographically, but also as a bit of a political and cultural go-between.

如今，金門人認為自己與中國的距離很近，不僅在地理上如此，在政治和文化上也是如此。

They depend on China for trade.

他們的貿易依賴中國。

Tourism is a big part of that.

旅遊業是其中重要的一部分。

So they'll be hoping that this delegation's trip to Beijing helps bring back some of the tourists that have been missing for the past few years.

是以，他們希望這次代表團的北京之行能讓過去幾年流失的遊客重新回來。