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Several sources including Wikivoyage, Seat 61, and Lonely Planet tell me that there's s short, quick ferry from China to the Taiwanese island of Matsu.

Apparently this ferry leaves from a part of, or neighbouring town of, Fuzhou in Fujian province called "Mawei" (马尾).

But none of these sources tell me the address of the ferry terminal and I can't seem to pinpoint it using either Google Maps or OpenStreetMap.

On the maps the whole area along the coast is lined with boats and the only spot marked as being a port is a bit inland.

I've missed ferries in other countries by arriving a bit late before so I'd like to be sure of the exact spot I need to get to in advance.

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  • 1
    See addition on end of my answer
    – Russell McMahon
    Jan 21, 2014 at 1:47
  • Are we there yet?
    – Russell McMahon
    Jan 23, 2014 at 4:57
  • I arrived in Mawei after many a hitchhiking adventure at about 11pm so too late to scout out the area unfortunately. I'm just going to have to take my chances in the morning!
    – hippietrail
    Jan 23, 2014 at 16:59
  • @pnuts: D'oh I have been words like this for ages d-:
    – hippietrail
    Oct 30, 2016 at 18:50

4 Answers 4

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I think I've found it on Baidu Maps:

福州港马尾客运站 (Fuzhou Port Mawei Passenger Terminal)

罗星东路77 (Luoxing East Rd 77)

Per their home page, they have ferries to Matsu (马祖) every few hours. Page seems to be on the blink though, the Transport (交通指南) page is showing up blank. Give 0591-83268880 a ring?

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  • Dammit! I found one a few days ago on Google Maps too. But I just checked and it's not the same one - but yours is also on Google Maps! I'm going to post mine in a second answer so hopefully we can get to the bottom of this!
    – hippietrail
    Jan 20, 2014 at 15:18
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    Well, this place has a homepage with the same name showing a live schedule of ferries to Matsu, so I'd bet a few yuan on this one being correct ;)
    – lambshaanxy
    Jan 20, 2014 at 23:55
  • The only odd thing now is that the page you found mentions several ferries per day whereas everything I'd heard before and Russell now confirms is that there's just one each morning.
    – hippietrail
    Jan 21, 2014 at 2:28
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2nd addition:

Latest update from China:

No.73 bus can take people from fuzhou to the terminal for the ferry, but only those listed with these four chinese characters

  • 两马快线
    = liang ma kuai xian
    = fast bus for the ferry from Mawei to Matsu,）

could enter the terminal. so he could only take No.73 buses with those chinese characters

1st addition:

You are probably there by now, but:

My friend in China rang the phone number that jpatokai provided. She says:
I called the passenger terminal
one ferry one day
9:15am starts, from Mawei to Matsu
8:30am customs clearing
8:45am customs clearing closed

Huzzah! ( :-) )

From here
aka: http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_6da21d820100trmz.html

Caption says: Mawei Port Minjiang - departure to Matsu Island

Ovals on map are my interpretation of available data. YMMV :-)

enter image description here

enter image description here

She notes that there is useful comment on Matsu here (no mention of Mawei) here:
Also inb 'clear' in case the link worketh not for you: http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_5e1ed3b40102dui1.html

Older incorrect material deleted from below here:

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  • I'm going to start hitchhiking southward tonight, not sure if I'll get much Wi-Fi access before Matsu. No Panoramio this side of the GFoW sadly! )-:
    – hippietrail
    Jan 18, 2014 at 11:50
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    I've sent an email. I'll post here if any news turns up.
    – Russell McMahon
    Jan 18, 2014 at 15:49
  • Do you think either of these spots matches up with the two spots jpatokal and myself found? I can't tell.
    – hippietrail
    Jan 20, 2014 at 16:34
  • No. My spot at left in small scale photo is not the same. The oval in my small scale (right hand) photo is Fuzhou area. Your new location is to the right (East) of that. ie I'm wrong :-).
    – Russell McMahon
    Jan 20, 2014 at 23:06
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    I've deleted the old material. The text and photos above are believed to be fully relevant YMMV. Hopefully not.
    – Russell McMahon
    Jan 21, 2014 at 14:48
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Tips for those who want to go to Matsu Islands (Nangan) for a few days to continue to Taiwan or return to China afterward.

It is currently (11/2019) possible to travel to Nangan from Fuzhou Mawei. There is (usually!) one boat per day that leaves at 9:15 am, you have to be at the terminal ferry before 8:30 am to complete the formalities. Finding the new terminal is not easy. It is located in Caoban, about fifteen km north of Mawei. Luckily, the bus 201 that runs in Mawei, for 5 yuans and in 1 hour goes to the terminal, the terminal ferry. A number to call the day before (6 pm) to be sure of the boat's departure the next day: 0591 83956114 I missed the boat at 15 minutes and the next day no boat because of the weather... So I went to Xiamen to go to Kinmen!

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I thought I found it but didn't have time to post about it, and then didn't have internet for a couple of days. But now I see it's different to the one jpatokal found!

Walking route from the one jpatokal found to the one I found on Google Maps. That's over a one-hour walk.

Mine is called "福州马尾旧镇渡口‎" (Fuzhou Old Town Ferry).

Hopefully the one I found is now defunct and jpatokal found the correct one. If anybody can verify this theory or resolve the duality in any other way, please go for it!

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  • This is definitely not the current ferry terminal though I did not have the time to check what's left of it.
    – hippietrail
    Jan 24, 2014 at 4:33

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