How To Travel From China To Taiwan? (Us Citizen)

[waiguoren]

I currently live in Qingdao. A friend says I can fly to Xiamen, then take a boat to Taibei. Does anyone have experience with this? I'm asking here because Chinese people probably have to go through different procedures than I do. Thanks.

BTW, I wasn't sure which forum to post in. Please move this post to a more relevant forum if necessary.

[Lu]

That's probably the slowest method. Provided you find that boat, crossing the Taiwan Strait takes at least 10 hours and Taipei itself has no harbour.

The most convenient method is flying. Currently there are direct flights between China and Taiwan, and if those are full or only for Chinese citizens, you can fly through Hong Kong. I think that as a US citizen, you don't need a visa for Taiwan if you stay for less than a month or so, check with the Taiwanese representative office ('embassy') in the US what the rules are. If you want to return to China after going to Taiwan, you probably need a multiple entry visa.

[johnk]

For what it is worth, I flew from Shanghai to Taipei and back again last October. There were no problems. I was given a 90 day duration of stay at Taipei airport, though I only stayed 5. I am an Irish citizen if that matters. According to my tour company, I could have flown from Beijing or Hong Kong just as easily.

[Daan]

You can take a direct flight from many cities in mainland China, but they are a bit expensive. It may still be cheaper to fly to Hong Kong first and change planes there. You can also travel to Xiamen, take the ferry to Jinmen (which is a Taiwanese island close to the mainland) and then take a plane to Taipei from there.

[wedge]

Probably the cheapest way would be to fly into Shenzhen and then take a shuttle to Hong Kong to get a connecting flight to Taipei. I don't know about about the Qingdao route in particular but I know that domestic flights in China can be pretty cheap and HK->Taiwan can also be quite cheap.

[rrorrl]

There are direct flights between Qing Dao and Taiwan. The most rapid method is by plane.