The largest Online shopping site in Taiwan officially launched a men’s care section to satisfy growing demand in the men’s grooming market in Taiwan, an official from Yahoo!Shopping Mall said in a press conference Monday.

Men’s cosmetics sales in Taiwan grew 73 percent in the first quarter of 2010 compared to the same period of last year, according to sales performance statistics released by the online shopping company.

Sales of facial mask products showed fast growth, while other ranges, such as skin care and anti-acne creams, have also seen sales increase significantly in the first quarter of 2010, said Hsu Chen-fei, the company’s product director.

Men’s grooming products are selling well in China as well.

It will be interesting to see if the trends overseas also extend to the barbershop resurgence we’re seeing in the U.S.

Tensions continue to ease between China and Taiwan.

Taiwan is to open its first office in mainland China since the two sides split at the end of civil war in 1949.

The office – known as the Taiwan Strait Tourism Association’s Beijing Office – will try to encourage more Chinese tourists to visit the island.

The opening of the office is a further sign of improving cross-strait ties.

Taiwan’s President Ma Ying-jeou came into office in 2008 focusing on reducing tensions between the two former rivals.

Since Mr Ma opened up Taiwan to Chinese tourists in mid-2008, the number of Chinese visitors to the island has skyrocketed.

The photo above shows Chinese tourists leaving a duty-free shop in Taipei, Taiwan. Taiwan opened its first tourism office in Beijing to promote tourism and handle tourists’ problems, but will not issue visas.

Taiwan and China split at the end of a civil war in 1949. Tension eased in the late 1980s when Taiwan allowed its citizens to visit China. Last year, some 4 million Taiwanese visited China, while 970,000 mainlanders visited Taiwan.

The rivalry

continues.