Thousands of mainland Chinese tourists are visiting Taiwan this week during presidential elections on Saturday, with many expressing surprise at the vigor of the island's democracy and others showing support for Beijing's favored candidate, incumbent Ma Ying-jeou.
"This is the first time I have been here," said a tourist surnamed Zhang from the northeastern Chinese city of Qingdao, who was in Taipei's old-town district of Ximending on Friday evening with his tour group.
"We didn't give much thought to the election, but now we're here and we can see the culture of the democratic election all around us. We think it's great," he said.
A 75-year-old tourist from the eastern province of Shandong surnamed Wang said his lifelong wish to visit Taiwan had only become possible in the past year with new trade and travel deals signed by Ma's administration with Beijing.
"Things are at fever pitch," said Wang, who was carrying a flag from Ma's campaign. "They are reporting [the elections] on the TV every day."
"We have always wanted to come to Taiwan, and now we are finally here. I want to thank Ma Ying-jeou. He is the pride of the Chinese people, and we all support him. I think our feelings would be a bit different if Tsai Ing-wen were to win the election."
Taiwanese voters will choose between Ma, an incumbent who brought major rapprochement with rival China, and opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) candidate Tsai, who has vowed to back ordinary Taiwanese in the face of powerful vested interests like Ma and the Kuomintang (KMT) political and business elite.
First female candidate
Tsai, a 55-year-old law professor with a doctorate from the London School of Economics, has campaigned on a combination of sharp intellect and grassroots appeal among ordinary Taiwanese who feel marginalized by the deals being struck between the Taiwan government, business conglomerates and Beijing.
The island's first-ever female presidential candidate rallied her supporters last November, calling on them to be "little pigs" in the fight against "the big bad wolf," referring to Mr Ma, the wealthy elite that support him, and his backers in Beijing.
She has steadily closed the gap between them since, and the two candidates are running neck and neck, with People First Party (PFP) presidential candidate James Soong in third place, and likely to draw votes away from Ma.
"We stand at the gates of history," Tsai told a news conference winding up the campaign on Friday. "One step further, and we will enter a new era, and move towards a new politics, and a new economics ... Let's take that step together," she told her supporters.
Ma, who has staked out his ground in the area of economic rejuvenation linked to closer ties with mainland China, paid his respects on Friday night at the mausoleum of former KMT leader and president Chiang Ching-kuo, son of KMT supreme leader Chiang Kai-shek.
"I hope that everyone will be able to unite under the Pan-Blue Alliance and move forward into a new century," Ma told supporters at the mausoleum, calling on Soong's supporters to transfer their votes to him. "Pool your votes for No. 2, Ma Ying-jeou."
His move comes after a Jan. 3 opinion poll showed Tsai would win the election if Soong's supporters continued to vote for him instead of Ma.
Slowed growth
Taiwan's export growth has slowed in the past year to nothing, compared with 20 percent a year ago, while China-bound investment from the island has halved in the wake of the global economic downturn.
Tsai's poll lead sparked the return home of around 200,000 Taiwan businessmen who live and work in mainland China ahead of polling day, with Chinese airlines laying on extra flights to ensure they made it.
Apart from this show of indirect support, Beijing has remained uncharacteristically silent on the election, perhaps mindful that attacks on previous candidates may have contributed to their being elected.
In 1996, China fired missiles at Taiwan ahead of the presidential poll.
Taiwan's economic future is now inextricably tied to that of its larger neighbor, a reality which has drawn many voters away from aspirations towards formal independence which have prompted threats of invasion from Beijing in the past.
The island has been governed separately from China since Chiang Kai-shek's KMT forces fled there in 1949 after losing a civil war with Mao Zedong's communists on the mainland.
Reported by Chung Kuang-cheng for RFA's Cantonese service, and by Lee Tung for the Mandarin service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.