A mother and her two children arrive at Xiamen ferry pier yesterday benefiting from a new baggage through check-in service. The new service allows travelers under the three mini-links arrangement to check in their bags at local airports and claim them at mainland piers. CNA

TAIPEI: Taiwan travelers bound for the mainland under the three mini-links arrangement began enjoying hassle-free luggage service yesterday.

Now their luggage can be checked all the way to their mainland destinations.

The three mini-links, inaugurated in June 2008, have greatly facilitated travel between Taiwan and the mainland.

Under the arrangement, Taiwan residents could board a flight to Kinmen or Matsu from regional airports rather than having to go to Taoyuan or Songshan.

Once they arrive in Kinmen or Matsu, travelers can take the ferry to Xiamen or Mawei and transfer to other cities.

The number of travelers using this arrangement has been on the rise.

To tie in with this arrangement, the Department of Transport, the Directorate-General of Customs, the Kinmen county government as well as members of the transport sector have decided to introduce a baggage through check-in service.

The target market is out-bound travelers from the three mini-links who have purchased ticket packages to Xiamen and Quanzhou in Fujian via Kinmen.

The idea is to allow them to check their luggage at any one of the five airports at Taipei, Taichung, Chiayi, Tainan and Kaohsiung and claim the luggage at the mainland piers of Dongdu or Wutong in Xiamen or Shijinggang in Quanzhou.

Yesterday marked the beginning of a trial period for the new service.

The county-operated Wujiang Ferry's managing director Hsu Yi-jie and Kinmen Airport Office Director Hong Nien-Chi arrived at the Kinmen ferry pier to get a better grasp of how the new service operates.

The deputy director of UNI Air's Kinmen Airport Office Tai Mei-hong boarded the ferry enroute to the Dongdu Pier at Xiamen to study that operation as a reference for future improvement.

Hsu said the new arrangements would spare travelers a lot of hassles in handling luggage.

He reminded travelers using the new service of the maximum weight limits for passenger luggage: 20 kg for check-in luggage and 7 kg for carry-on luggage. Overweight luggage is charged at NT$16 for each additional kilogram.

If a ferry exceeds its weight limit overweight luggage will be separately handled, meaning passengers and their baggage may not arrive at destinations on the same boat, he warned.

The wife of a Taiwan businessman, bringing the couple's two children to the mainland, said the new baggage service provided mainland-bound travelers with great convenience.

She said she hoped the same service could be made available to people traveling in the opposite direction.

But Hsu pointed out that such a service for inbound trips would not be possible until Kinmen's Shueitou Pier can be expanded and necessary facilities are in place. That is not expected before November.