Hsu Tao is a Taiwan entrepreneur working in Beijing. He runs a start-up focusing on internet platforms for human resources. Before the pandemic, he often traveled between Beijing and Taipei.

"I went back to celebrate the Lunar New Year with my family last year. And I came back to Beijing on February 18. At that time, everyone coming to Beijing had to be quarantined at home for 14 days. After the quarantine, we still had to work from home for nearly one month because of the epidemic control measures. Late last March we were able to come back to the office and work from there," said Hsu.

Hsu and his colleagues have witnessed several resurgences of the virus. After Beijing Daxing's Xinfadi reported a cluster of confirmed cases, some of his colleagues had to quarantine.

"We've experienced very strict epidemic control measures here in Beijing. And sometimes it's indeed not so convenient in our daily lives. But I think it's because we have these strict measures that our economies can recovery so quickly," he added.

Hsu and his colleagues were looking closely at Beijing's vaccination program. After hearing the Chinese capital planned to inoculate nine high-risk groups of people in January, he went straight to the local health authorities and asked them for a jab.

"Our internet company was not among the nine high-risk groups of people. But most of our customers are working in the food and the catering industry. So we believed it would be safer for us to get vaccinated. Our community's health authorities were very helpful. After knowing our situation, they helped me and my colleagues receive vaccines. I got my first jab on January 9 and the second one on January 28," said Hsu.

Besides Xu, many other business people and students from Taiwan are voluntarily receiving vaccines in Chinese provinces like Fujian, Guangxi and Jiangsu. In the city of Xiamen alone, about 450 Taiwan people have registered for vaccinations.

"As far as I know, many people from Taiwan would like to receive the mainland's vaccines. But due to the authorities on the island banning the vaccines, the doses cannot enter Taiwan. Actually, some of my friends in Taiwan feel a little envious, because they know first of all that the vaccines in the mainland are free and effective. And second, they know the health authorities here are treating us equally. Every Taiwan people in the mainland can voluntarily register to get vaccinated," said Cheng Po-yu, vice president of the Taiwan Youth Council at the Beijing Association for Taiwan Enterprises.

In terms of Taiwan's current ability to vaccinate its population, Cheng expressed his concern. "Taiwan says it has the pandemic under control, but it looks like it doesn't have enough vaccines. Who can guarantee how the pandemic will develop in the future？I still feel uncertain about Taiwan's epidemic control measures," Cheng said.

Both Cheng and Hsu believe many Taiwan residents don't have access to information that allows them to understand the true efficacy of the mainland's vaccines. They say they hope their experiences in the Chinese mainland are able to reach and influence their friends and families back home.