Cheapest way to travel from the mainland to Taiwan?

[Lauren88]

Hi,

I'm currently living in Beijing on a student budget, but am thinking about going to Taiwan. Any advice as to the cheapest way to travel from the mainland to Taiwan? Flights? A ferry? It seems either complicated and/or expensive, from what I've seen so far. Thanks for the help!

[Lu]

There's no ferry.

The most common way of going to Taiwan is by plane, with a stopover or changing planes in Hongkong. Another way, which I haven't tried out myself, but should be cheaper: take a train from Beijing to Hongkong, then a plane to Taipei. This way the trip will take about 2 days instead of half a day, so only recommended if you have more time than money.

[adrianlondon]

Dress yourself in a panda costume. The Chinese government will fly you to Taipei for free, although you may find yourself locked in a cage and expected to, umm, perform.

[Lauren88]

Now this is a fantastic idea!

[smalldog]

There are also plenty of flights from Macau to Taiwan and they may be cheaper than flying from Hong Kong. Then you'd get quite a complicated route Train to Guangzhou, bus to Zhuhai, walk across the border to Macau.

[Lauren88]

Do you have any idea what the visa situation would be like for this type of journey?

[smalldog]

I believe that Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan all grant visas on arrival to many nationalities.

[Adam]

Lauren, have you found a cheap way? Im planning on going beginning of May for a week or so. What have you found out so far?

Cheers

[Lu]

For the visa situation when travelling to Taiwan, you'd best check with the Taiwanese 'embassy' in your country (call them, or check their website). Many nationalities can stay in TW without visa for... I forgot, I think it was a month or so.

[Long Zhiren]

I don't believe the panda costume will work since the DPP in Taiwan is presently denying entry by pandas, especially from the mainland. If you can wait another year or two, the DPP might lose power and direct routings to the mainland would materialize quite soon afterwards.

As for train travel to Hong Kong, I'm also not sure of the airfare situation for Hong Kong - Taiwan routes. Here in the US, if one were to shop for airfares online for Hong Kong - Taiwan, they always seem quite expensive for some reason. Then again, the best airfares to buy in the US, for Asia travel, are through travel agents in Asian ethnic neighborhoods. Then this becomes a brand new story.

In case there is a monopoly on air routes between Hong Kong and Taiwan and airfares can't get better there, one could also go through Korea or Japan.

Here's a list of discount airlines that operate in China:

http://www.airtimetable.com/lowfare-airline-results.asp

I doubt if these listings will enable a routing as "direct" as would be through Korea or Hong Kong.

[StealthyBurrito]

I'm a little late on this, but I think you'll find the cheapest way to fly from the mainland to Taiwan is by flying to Shenzhen using a domestic airline (from Beijing this is 1600RMB normally, but as low as 800RMB if you fly through a discount travel agency), taking the KCR (Kowloon-Canton Rail) train over the border, then taking HK international airport to Taiwan via the major SE Asian airlines (Singapore, Eva, China Airlines, etc.).

Unfortunately I did not know this and flew directly from Beijing to HK, which was not only pricey (2400RMB) but also counted as an international flight so my friends and I were subject to all sorts of restrictions (and fees since they violated them unknowingly). But then again it's arguably a pain to take the KCR from Shenzhen all the way to Lantau Island, so I guess it may be more convenient to fly directly.

[Don_Horhe]

Sorry to revive a thread on it's third birthday (last post is 18 Sept 2006:mrgreen:), but this is the closest thing I came up with using the search function. Anyway, if I, an EU citizen currently living in Wuhan, decide I want to go to Taiwan for a few days, what should I do? I don't know how and if the situation has changed since the last post, but I'm assuming that with Mainland - TW flights being available and all, it makes things a tad bit easier. What about visas and stuff like that?

[westmeadboy]

I've never tried it, but you could look into this option:

From Fuzhou, China, there are two daily ferries to Matsu in Taiwan. Take bus 69 from Fuzhou train station to Wuyilu, then bus 73 to the end station Mawei harbor. The ferry costs 350 RMB from China and 1300 NTD from Taiwan (roughly 35EUR). The trip takes two hours. The old website, mit30.com.tw, appears to be down

From Matsu, there are two daily ferries to Keelung in Taiwan. The price is 1050 NTD (roughly 25EUR), which includes a bed, as the trip takes 10 hours. Bookings can be made at +886 2 2424 6868

At Mawei harbour in Fuzhou there is an oppotunity to buy an inclusive ticket all the way to Taipei that includes the Fuzhou to Matsu ferry above and a domestic flight from Matsu to Taipei (or Taichung). The price (780RMB) includes transfer between port and aiport on Matsu, and a coupon for lunch at the airport while you wait for your connection. The ferry leaves Fuzhou at 9:30AM. Get to Mawei at 8AM to buy tickets.

http://wikitravel.org/en/Taiwan#Get_in

[gato]

From Wuhan, you can try the direct flights between Taipei and Shanghai, and Taipei and Beijing. Dutch passport holders don't need a visa for Taiwan for trips of 30 days or less.

See this itinerary, for example:

http://www.skyscanner.net/flights/results/tpe/wuh/091007/091013/cheapest-flights-per-day-to-wuhan-from-taipei-taiwan-taoyuan-in-october-2009.html?owfc=a178*tpe0910071310*hu,cz*can*wuh0910071855&oqrid=a178tpe%20wuh%20091007091013&iwfc=a178*wuh0910130825*cz*can*tpe0910131330&iqrid=a178tpe%20wuh%20091007091013

Depart: Wed 07 Oct 2009

13:10-14:50 1h 40 Taipei Taiwan Taoyuan (TPE) Guangzhou (CAN) Hainan Airlines HU 7982

2h 40 Connect in airport

17:30-18:55 1h 25 Guangzhou (CAN) Wuhan (WUH) China Southern CZ 3344

Return: Tue 13 Oct 2009

08:25-09:50 1h 25 Wuhan (WUH) Guangzhou (CAN) China Southern CZ 3368

1h 40 Connect in airport

11:30-13:30 2h Guangzhou (CAN) Taipei Taiwan Taoyuan (TPE) China Southern CZ 3097

£435.20

[Don_Horhe]

Thanks!

[muyongshi]

Isn't the cheapest way to swim?? I mean in reality...