On Thursday, a ceremony was held in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, to welcome Taiwan students to an internship program organized by the Taiwan affairs office of the government of Guangzhou. This year, 120 university students are participating, doubling the number from last year.

Coming from 23 universities in Taiwan and 10 universities in the mainland, they will work in 50 companies and institutions in the southern city.

Lin Hsin-tzu, who has just graduated with an international business major from Guangzhou-based Sun Yat-sen University, will work at an electronics company.

When attending the ceremony to launch the yearly program, Lin said she hopes to acquire practical experience from the four-week internship. She hails the program as an excellent platform to meet others her age from Taiwan.

Tseng Cheng-yu, who studied international trade at Taiwan's Chung Yuan Christian University, will work in a bank's marketing department.

"We know that the mainland has been developing very well in recent years and want to see for ourselves and look for opportunities," Tseng said.

"I interned at a bank in Taiwan. The mainland market is large, and I want to learn about the business scope of a bank here."

Initiated in 2018, the internship program in Guangzhou has served more than 2,000 students from over 120 Taiwan universities, according to the Taiwan affairs office of the government of Guangzhou.