Is the fast ferry between Pingtan, China and Taipei, Taiwan still going?
- By
- Aparna Patel
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- 24 Jul, 2023
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There’s a Taipei Port to Pingtan ferry. We took it earlier today at 9am. It leaves from the port to the west of Taipei (rather than the old Keelung port to the north).
Buying tickets: we asked a Chinese friend to book, although I’ve heard you can book through their central Taipei office. It also looked like you can buy at the terminal.
Travel to port: we took a taxi from Tamsui (stayed overnight there) as it’s not linked that well to public transport. There is a bus service you can take – see CSF website (the ferry operator) for details.
Collecting tickets/customs/check-in: all in the same building in the port. Here’s the plus code of the building entrance – 592R+55 Taipei, Taiwan. Direct your taxi there. There are some big “Departure” signs up once you enter port area.
You then get a shuttle bus to the ferry itself.
Ferry was really choppy. Staff were going around with sick bags and lots of people were sick – so beware if you get sea sick! No food on sale so bring lunch.
Shuttle bus to Fuzhou: CSF operate a shuttle bus to Fuzhou city centre although you have to pre book – you can buy at the Taipei terminal I think. It didn’t seem like we could buy it at Pingtan. We didn’t realise this and were lucky one of the other passengers persuaded the driver to let us on without a ticket.
N.b. Seems like they aren’t used to Western passengers – the immigration staff at Pingtan made us pose for photos with them and they gave us gifts! Was a bit odd but fun – they were all very friendly.
Yes the ferry is still going. If you go to the office go to the 5th floor where a really nice woman helped me a lot. And even though on the day nobody spoke English they still managed with the help of the office computer 😉
I will go on the 3rd of February and will send photos and report to seat61 😉
Yes the ferry is still in operation. They have changed their website address and Seat 61 only has the old address, which seems to have been squatted.
The Chinese name of CSF is 海峽高速 (Haixia Gaosu) “Strait High-speed” and it is much more amenable to Googling.
The new website is at www.taiwancsf.com and is still only in Chinese but does seem to be working. It includes current pricing and timetables. (They also have a Facebook page.)
What’s unclear: It had seemed to me that the cheapest price has increased to $2,800 NTD but if you don’t buy at least three days in advance, you have to buy at the wharf where the price for the same ticket is $3,500 NTD.
But now it seems these two prices are for 60-day open tickets vs 90-day open tickets. I have to check the website translations and clarify this point.
They also have an office in Taipei. The address is:
104 台北市中山區松江路315號7樓
7th Floor, 315 Songjiang Road, Zhongshan District, Taipei City
Translation by Google, wrangled by yours truly (-:
The manager of the hostel called the Taipei office for me. If there were no language problems, the office is open until 6pm even on Sundays and does sell the tickets.
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Unfortunately it is entirely in Chinese (the “English” link doesn’t work), but it does show fares and schedules through the end of this year. You can muddle your way through it using Google translate, but better to have someone who can read Chinese to help you.
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