More than 4 million mainland tourists have visited Taiwan in the past four years, bringing some 216.7 billion NTD (7.4 billion U.S. dollars) to the island, according to Taiwan's authorities for mainland affairs. Trips made by mainland tourists to Taiwan had reached 4.28 million by the end of August since the island was opened to mainland travellers in July 2008, said Lu chang-shui, an official with the authorities. The figure included 125,000 trips made by independent travellers, he said. Starting June 2011, independent tourists from a number of mainland cities were allowed to visit Taiwan.