A friend of mine in Hualien just told me that he got a cheap booking for early June on one of the Cruise Ships that go to Ishigaki from Keelung once or twice a week over the summer. His fare is less than NT$9000, which and sounds like a good deal but looks like a special deal, since there is no fare that low offered on the Starcruise reservation page (their fares start at about NT$15000). But it may be worth looking into this mode of transportation and contact the travel agency to see whether a good deal can be had (this year passenger numbers have been down, so they may sell passage tickets at a reduced rate for departures in the near future).
Trip dates, durations, and destinations can be selected on this page: reservation2.starcruises.com/cru … language=1
(the selected departure port has to be “Keelung”, and the target area “South China Sea”)
It often happens that nothing shows up on that page, in which case you make sure you have selected a month that is not in the past and click the “Search” button top refresh the information.
The travel agency where you can make bookings is
太陽旅行社 SUN TRAVEL SERVICE
Taipei 02-2522-2244
Kaohsiung 07-282-3322
Keep in mind, that a trip to Ishigaki includes two overnight stays on board and about 7 hours of free time ashore in Ishigaki during the day, so you may want to (or have to) budget for more than just the passage.
Since the questions come up once in a while: there is currently no ferry service between Taiwan and Ishigaki Island (or any other island in Okinawa), but there is some unofficial negotiation going on these days, involving some people in Yilan, to have a tour group of cyclists taken over to Ishigaki from Suao by a private ship on occasion. If and when i have more information (especially anything that goes beyond “currently under negotiation”) i’ll post it here…
If you want to make use of the occasional direct flights between Hualien and Ishigaki, you can get more information here: viewtopic.php?f=177&t=97219
Yonaguni Island. It is geographically closer to Taiwan than Ishigaki, but since it does not have an international airport or harbour - meaning there is usually no immigration and customs staff on the island - it is administratively farther away from Taiwan than Ishigaki: usually one will have to go to Ishigaki and from there to Yonaguni. The odd charter flight between Taiwan and Yonaguni (for example, when a few dozen school children go on an exchange trip) requires prior arrangement with the authorities, and yachts and private boats are normally not admitted but have to come to Ishigaki first for clearance. If there is a diving boat charter from Yilan, maybe they go to the diving spot only and don’t go into the harbour to let people set foot on the island? Tell us more about that (private) boat from Yilan…
[quote=“yuli”]The travel agency where you can make bookings is
太陽旅行社 SUN TRAVEL SERVICE
Taipei 02-2522-2244
Kaohsiung 07-282-3322[/quote]
Something that could possibly turn out to be of interest to people who need to make a visa run: the next cheap trip (one night on board only) of a Starcruise ship is advertised for August 18 and the next after that for September 22 - rumour has it that you get stamps in your passport indicating that you have left Taiwan and come back in, but we have no confirmation yet from anybody who has gone on such a trip. Regular trips involve 2 or 3 nights accommodation and may therefore not be of interest to those who just want a cheap visa run and not a holiday (although those how need them are guaranteed to get their stamps).
For the relevant link on the company website check the opening post…
How often do people have to do those visa runs?
(tommy525 (? - i hope i got the number right) gave me a detailed explanation not long ago but i am still not confident i understand all of that problem.)
I think going to Japan many times will hardly be a problem if someone comes in for just a day every few months. (The limit you may have heard about - there is no official limit, like a number, by the way - applies to people who stay in Japan on a tourist visa and then leave but come back within a very short time in the hope of getting another tourist visa: in those cases Japanese officials may at any time deny re-entry, because they would suspect (rightly so) that he person in question is not a tourist. But that situation not really different from other countries…)
Here is the details for the guy in charge of customs for the keelung harbour. I got confirmation from him that yes you may get stamps and landing visa in the harbour: Border Affairs Corps(移民署國境領事大隊) National Immigration Agency TEL: +886-3-3985010 # 7203 Contact Mr. Lin
Immigration in Ishigaki is certainly not stressful, but how any given officer on any given day is going to apply the rules and guidelines that exist?
I couldn’t possibly tell you - my red passport ensures that none of this applies and i get a smile at the worst of times…
On the Star Cruises website there is a boat ride from Keelung to Yonaguni for 6410 TWD. That’s where those natural pyramids are located. Looks like its for 28 September.
Not to forget the two equally cheap trips i had mentioned before: August 18 and September 22… so now there are three already…
PS: I think i had mentioned that before: there are no pyramids there. There are large (house size) squarish looking rock formations under water that show signs of human modification…
Hey KanPi, would you have the name of that company in mandarin, or their website address? That ferry line could be really useful for visa runs if the price is decent
and click the “Search” button top refresh the information.
