TAIWAN

Plans for Travel to China Canceled: About 10,000 Taiwanese have backed out of tours following the mysterious death of 24 Taiwanese tourists in China, a spokesman for local travel agents said Friday. About 450 group tours have been canceled, costing travel agents about $11.4 million, a spokesman for the Taipei Assn. of Travel Agents said. Taiwan announced last week that all group tours to China will be suspended from May 1 over the Chinese authorities’ handling of a March 31 boat fire on Qiandao Lake in the central-eastern Chinese province of Zhejiang that killed 24 Taiwanese tourists and eight mainlanders. Chinese officials estimate that more than a million Taiwanese travelers last year pumped at least $589 million into China’s economy. Taiwan eased a four-decade ban on travel to China in 1987.