by Xinhua writers Fu Shuangqi, Xu Xiaoqing and Ren Qinqin

    BEIJING, May 22 (Xinhua) -- In her fifties, Taiwan writer Gao Ying became a celebrity among mothers in the mainland.

    Her blog, focusing on parenting, on the popular mainland website Sina, has attracted about 3 million hits in the past two years. She published a book on parenting in January and two more books are coming soon.

    But before she moved to Shanghai, Gao was mostly known for writing travel books. Her books, introducing ethnic minorities in the mainland, were popular on the island in the 1990s.

    "I moved to Shanghai in 2002 because my daughter went to a college of traditional Chinese medicine here," she tells Xinhua. "I was thinking about writing something new because I might not be able to compete with writers here in writing about the mainland."

    A friend suggested a new direction. "Very few writers wrote about parenting in the mainland and I have an advantage. I am a mother of a boy and a girl. I have hosted radio and television programs about parenting. And I am from Taiwan, sharing a similar culture with the mainland," she says.

    In 2007, she opened the blog. "I want to learn more about what mainland mothers are thinking and worrying. I have many friends on-line now."

    From Taiwan to the mainland, her life and career changed. "No matter how successful I was in Taiwan, I feel new here."

    An estimated 1 million Taiwanese live on the mainland, where some extend their careers and some start their dreams.

    FARMER'S AMBITION

    During the hour-and-40-minute flight from Fuzhou city, Fujian Province, to Beijing, Huang Yi-chung buries himself in work, even refusing to take water.

    Running a Taiwan fruit company, Huang has three wholesale centers and 13 outlets on the mainland, selling 5 to 10 tonnes of Taiwan fruits a day.

    "I'm just an ordinary Taiwan farmer, doing business across the strait," he says. "I have realized my dream to introduce Taiwan's best fruit to the mainland, and next I will grow it here."

    He was among the first group of Taiwan farmers to come to the mainland after it lifted duty on 10 varieties of Taiwan fruit in May 2005.

    But many were deterred by transport issues. Taiwan fruit had to be shipped to the mainland via Hong Kong or Japan as direct shipping was banned across the Taiwan Straits at that time.

    "It took at least six days and we had to dump them after the 15-day shelf life," he says.

    Huang recalls he once threw away 1,200 boxes of rotten fruit. "I cried. All of them were grown with our hard work," he says.

    But he persisted. "I always had confidence in the mainland market and mostly in the development of the cross-Straits relationship."

    After two years of hard work, mainland customers began to recognize his brand and his toughest problem was solved when direct shipping resumed between the two sides of the Taiwan Straits in December last year, cutting transport costs by two thirds.

    "I hope to expand my fruit shops to 300 mainland cities," he says.

    He is also applying to build a trading center for Taiwan produce in Xiamen city, Fujian.

    "It will be a platform for Taiwan farmers to market their products and for agriculturists to introduce the island's latest technologies," he said.

    "COFFEE SPOON"

    Dressed in plaid shirt and baggy jeans, Shen Chih-sheng looks much like his classmates and other young people in the small cafe near the Fujian Agricultural and Forestry University in Fuzhou.

    Seven years ago when he first entered the classroom of a high school in Suzhou city of eastern Jiangsu Province, he was very "Taiwan."

    "I did not know who Lei Feng (a model soldier and communist in the 1960s) was. I spoke Mandarin with a strong accent," says Shen, whose Mandarin sounds better than many locals.

    In college, he won awards twice in the Mandarin speaking contest of Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan students in Fujian.

    Born in Taiwan, he moved to the mainland at the age of 16 with parents who run a logistics company in Shanghai.

    "The mainland was clean, pretty and modern, totally different from my image of a remote and backward place," he recalls of his first impression.

    Majoring in urban planning, he will graduate next year. "I plan to find a job on the mainland. There are always more opportunities for Taiwanese here," he says. He cites the mainland's opening of more professions to Taiwanese, including social workers, and civil and structural engineers.

    For years Shen avoided talking about Taiwan with his mainland friends. "My parents would not like me to stand out as 'Taiwanese'. They want me to be just an ordinary teenager," he says.

    But after entering college, he began to discuss politics on the island with classmates and friends.

    "I find they are open-minded. We debate sensitive issues, understand each other and sometimes reach agreements," he says. "The cross-Straits situation is easing. Taiwan is a more common issue than before."

    Stirring a cup of coffee, he says, "See, we, Taiwanese students on the mainland, are like this spoon, mixing the bitter with the sweet." (Hu Su and Huang Zhao also contributed to the story.)