hi
I understand that this topic was asked before but they were old threads. So if anyone could give an update one would be real appreciated.
I have to go to Fuzhou, China from Taiwan. By air is quite expensive so I wonder if there is ferry between these 2 ports?
From internet there's ferry from Keelung to Matsu island then to Fuzhou but some said the service isnt open yet and some also said that it's researved only for Taiwanese businessmen which I'm not.
thanks much in advance
Presently the ferries from Kinmen and Matsu to China are only open for Taiwanese. The same with the charter flights. I hear that they are going to have scheduled flights from Taiwan to Shanghai, but as far as I know that is only for Taiwanese. Waigouren have to go to Hong Kong or Macau and travel onward to Taiwan from there.
In terms of restrictions applying to foreigners this should not be an issue any more. Travelling to Taiwan you can get visa free entry if you hold a passport from US, Canada, Australia and most European countries. As far as I know there is a ferry service operating between Keelung and Mazu. I also expect there are ferries from Mazu to somewhere in Fujian.
There is significant potential for the development of Taiwan-China ferry services, but so far there hasn't been much happening in this area.
#2, I am not sure where you got your information but a lot of things have changed in the past year. There are now scheduled direct flights between Taiwan and China and these are open to anyone. Similarly there are no longer restrictions on foreigners (i.e. non-Taiwanese or non-Chinese) using the ferries as long as they have the correct visas.
I don't know about the flights. Last I heard they had "charter flights" regularly flying back and forth, but they were only for Taiwanese and I heard that they were thinking about opening them to Chinese. I fly back and forth to Hong Kong and Macau relatively regularly from Taipei, although less frequently in the last year.
Everything I've read and heard about the ferries say that they are open only to Taiwanese, although I wouldn't be surprised if now they let Chinese use them. I know that they were talking about demilitarizing the islands and attracting Chinese tourists. But I don't know anyone in Fujian who has used them. My Taiwanese friends usually go home via Hong Kong and I've never seen any options to get to Taiwan from China that I can use, not that I'm interested in taking a ferry and a plane or a series of ferries anyway.
The one thing that you can be sure of in China is that the rules change and and with luck, persistance and guanxi you can even get over on the ones that don't.
Note the following from the link in #7's post:
"At the time we went it wasn't possible to do the journey the other way but this was set to change as diplomatic relations continue to thaw. "
The "other way" means from China to Taiwan, so there may still be restrictions on traveling this way,should some reader find this thread and want to try it.
"The 'other way' means from China to Taiwan, so there may still be restrictions on traveling this way, should some reader find this thread and want to try it."
Did you read the posts I cited? Including the TT post that says, "On March 9, [2009,] travelled from Xiamen, China to Taipei, Taiwan - fairly easy to do nowadays."