Pingtan, in South China's Fujian province, has been actively attracting cross-Straits youth seeking employment or to start businesses in the city over the recent years, and it appears to be paying dividends.

As of Oct, 2016, a total of 500 startup companies have settled into three business incubators of Pingtan, namely Taiwan Innovation Park, Aoqian Taiwan Town and the creative culture base located Beigang village, and half of these are run by Taiwan youth.

Currently, Aoqian Taiwan Town, previously known as Pingtan-Taiwan Commodity Duty-free Market, houses about 300 vendors from mainland and Taiwan and has imported Taiwan goods worth 1.44 billion yuan as of Oct this year.

Taiwan Innovation Park, a national business incubator, has accommodated a total of 197 companies in various industries, including biological sciences and technology, health management, e-commerce, creative culture and tourism, since it was put into operation in Aug of last year.

Beigang village, a small village boasting fabulous landscapes, has already grown to be an important creative culture base for cross-Straits youth.

Currently, there are roughly 1,200 Taiwan residents in Pingtan and a third of them work at these three places.

Zhu Yun, director of Pingtan Cross-Straits Development Co said, "The implementation of preferential policies initiated by the local government is contributing to the boom."

She also said, "In the past, Pingtan's young people usually left their hometown to seek employment in other cities across China, however, most of them have come back and landed fairly decent jobs."

She believes that more and more cross-Straits youth shall realize their entrepreneurial dreams in Pingtan.

A bird's eye view of Aoqian Taiwan Town [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

A bird's eye view of Taiwan Innovation Park [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

A bird's eye view of Beigang village [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]