BEIJING, Sept. 25 (Xinhua) -- Japan's unilateral move of the so-called "purchase" of the Diaoyu Islands, which are Chinese territories, two weeks ago has taken its toll on bilateral economic and trade ties, experts said on Tuesday.
Chinese people intending on traveling to Japan have been bogged down. Heavyweight travel agencies, including China International Travel Service Limited, China Comfort Travel and China CYTS Tours Holding Co., Ltd., have halted travel business to Japan.
As far as Chinese travel to Japan is concerned, the impact of Diaoyu Islands rift could go as deep as the 2011 Fukushima earthquake, said a manager from the Marketing Department of the China CYTS, who preferred to be anonymous.
More Chinese organizations and groups canceled their travel plans to Japan in a bid to show strong protests and firm opposition to Tokyo's rash move of "purchase", media reports said.
Flights between China and Japan have been hampered in terms of flights being cut and delays of new routes opening. All Nippon Airways Co., Ltd. and Japan Airlines Co., Ltd. canceled up to 23,000 seats on routes to China during the last few weeks.
Chinese airlines, including Air China, China Hainan Airlines and China Southern, have either canceled or cut flights to Japan in September and October. China Eastern Airlines and Juneyao Airlines postponed plans to open new routes to Japanese Sendai and Okinawa separately.
Moreover, Japanese automakers, including Tokyo, Honda and Nissan, shut down several factories in China under the pressure of Chinese demonstrations over the "purchase."
Insiders expect the automakers' losses to hit at least 250 million U.S. dollars, adding that September sales of Japanese auto products in China, the largest auto market in the world, could decline 50 percent month on month.
Japanese electronic appliance makers also felt the chill from Chinese consumers' spontaneous boycott of Japanese products. Sales revenue of