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In less than two weeks my Chinese visa will expire and I'm considering taking one of the ferries to South Korea.

I don't care about which part of China it leaves from, there are several choices. I will buy the cheapest one-way ticket, I don't care if it means sleeping in a shared cabin, or even just getting a seat. Whatever is cheapest is fine. I also don't care where in Korea it lands, how long it takes, etc.

Wikivoyage has a bit of info on China to Korea and Korea to China, but I haven't been able to find something with all the prices so I can choose the cheapest. These are the places I can find which have ferries departing to South Korea, all to Incheon:

UPDATE I just found an excellent map of ferry routes by chance Googling, but I don't know anything about it and it doesn't include prices.

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    It looked like a textbook shopping question to me. There are many different routes and many different classes of service, and with currency fluctuations and inflation in China, I wouldn't expect prices to be stable for more than a single season.
    – choster
    Jan 14, 2014 at 14:58
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    You need to read the textbook on shopping questions again. We've long supported objective "cheapest" questions but not ones like "cheapest flight from X to Y on date Z". Almost anything can fluctuate. I specifically say "cheapest" and I don't care about the other factors so only the cheapest class is relevant. Currency fluctuations don't affect which option will be cheapest. I would expect the shorter routes serviced by the slower ferries in the less popular places to pretty stably be the cheaper over many seasons.
    – hippietrail
    Jan 14, 2014 at 15:27

4 Answers 4

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Two days ago I took the Weidong ferry from Qingdao to Incheon, while both the Lonely Planet book and the ferry company web site state 775 CNY as the cheapest fare (economy bed) plus 30 CNY port tax = 805 CNY, the actual ticket was just 458 + 30 = 488 CNY

ferry ticket

Both China and South Korea have National holidays soon, so I don't think this was an off-season price.

One of the most interesting part of the sail was going through the locks into port of Incheon:

In the lock

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    That's a bargain! How long did the crossing take? Do you have a photo or any interesting points worth adding?
    – hippietrail
    Sep 23, 2015 at 13:08
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    Weidong ferry is nice when it leaves as scheduled, but I have bought tickets several times and only once did it depart on the scheduled day. Be prepared for many extra days stay at your hotel.
    – Jordan Johnson
    Dec 26, 2016 at 2:41
  • How many days have these "many extra days" been roughly?
    – hippietrail
    Jun 7, 2019 at 4:53
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There are multiple ferry companies so multiple rates.

You can take a look at Seat 61, which provide the listing.

There is Weidong which runs about 750 CNY for the economy ticket which runs from Qingdao and Jinchon Ferry, which runs from Tanggu. Unfortunately the latter is in Korean, but there is information on that from Travel China Guide which states 888 CNY for economy accomodation.

Additional Info Based on Updated Map

There is a site called By Ferry From 2 Japan, which lists all the ferrys from China to Korea mentioned on that Google Map including pricing.

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  • I didn't even think of Seat 61 for ferries. I associate it with trains. But I believe there's more than two ferries.
    – hippietrail
    Jan 13, 2014 at 17:40
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    @hippietrail The information listed as part of the train journey from China to Korea but since traveling land only isn't possible. Sea travel is a must.
    – Karlson
    Jan 13, 2014 at 18:00
  • I guess that makes sense in some way. Do they also cover air travel when that is a must?
    – hippietrail
    Jan 14, 2014 at 3:32
  • @hippietrail Didn't find any
    – Karlson
    Jan 14, 2014 at 3:39
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    @hippietrail "This site explains how to travel comfortably & affordably by train or ferry where you might think that air was now the only option", from the site's front page.
    – AakashM
    Jan 14, 2014 at 13:36
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I've been Googling this all day, regularly finding new ports and routes to plug into new searches. Not long after finding the route map that I added to the question I found a page with lots of details and prices. Ironically on a website named byferryfrom2japan.com.

Of all the options the cheapest, as of one year ago, seems to be:

Lianyungang >> Pyeongtaek
      dep.                         arr.
Lianyungang port    >>>>     Pyeongtaek port
15:00 Wednesday     >>>>     13:00 (the next day)
15:00 Sunday        >>>>     14:00 (the next day)

*    Vessel: C-K STAR（中韩之星）
*    operator: Yeonunhang Ferry (Korean) Lianyungang C-k Ferry (Chinese)
*    Charges & fees：Economy Class 94,000(KRW) 560(CNY)
                    First class 110,000(KRW) 650(CNY)
                    Business 130,000(KRW) 780(CNY)
                    Royal 155,000(KRW) 920(CNY)
                    Royal Suite class 220,000(KRW) 1,300(CNY)
                    VIP 330,000(KRW) 1,950(CNY)
                    Fuel Surcharge: 20,000(KRW)90(CNY)
                    Departure Tax: Pyeongtaek 3,200(KRW) Lianyungang 30(CNY).
*    Reservation: Contact with their office in Pyeongtaek
                    031-684-3100 (phone) 031-684-3118(fax), in Lianyungang
                    0518-8238-8189(phone) 0518-8238-8935(fax).

updated 25 Jan. 2013

That's CNY 560 + 90 + 30 = 680. About USD $112.50 / EUR 82

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The Weidong ferry from Qingdao to Incheon, IF it is still this price (488 CNY), it is indeed the cheapest that I know of and converts in US Dollars to $72.15 This is about (less than) half the price of airfare from Beijing to Seoul.

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