Half-hour ferry rekindles kinship amid decades of cross-Strait complexity

XIAMEN -- It takes Hsieh Huai-En, a Kinmen resident working in Xiamen of East China's Fujian province, a 30-minute ferry voyage to go home.

Each ferry can carry about 300 passengers, but tickets often sell out during peak travel times. "Sometimes you have to book several days in advance just to get a seat," said Hsieh, an associate professor at Xiamen University.

Behind this brief bustling journey lies a deeper story -- decades of silence across the Taiwan Strait, and a longing for connection that never faded between people on both sides.

Due to an unresolved civil war dating back to the late 1940s, the island province of Taiwan has not been reunified with the Chinese mainland until today.

For decades after the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, military confrontation between the mainland and Taiwan cut off travel and communication across the Strait. Families were split apart. Letters stopped arriving. And for many, separations once thought temporary became permanent.

The tide began to turn in 1979, when the mainland proposed peaceful reunification and called for the restoration of postal and transportation links. In 2001, the cargo and passenger ferries between Fujian and Kinmen and Matsu islands were launched, followed by direct cross-Strait flights in 2008.

Once the door to exchanges opened, connections reignited. Wu Haoyu, a tech worker in Beijing, recalled her two trips to Taiwan-- one with family in 2012 and the other with classmates in 2014.

"Back then, visiting Taiwan was a trend," she said. "It was a great way to understand the island and get to know the people."

Between 1987 and 2017, over 100 million visits were made across the Strait. But the COVID-19 pandemic mixed with escalating separatist provocations by the Taiwan authorities brought exchanges to a standstill.

For nearly three years, the ferry route was suspended. It was a hard time for Hsieh. Since his simple voyage home turned into a complex transfer across multiple destinations, he only went home during winter and summer breaks.

Hsieh's torment ended on Jan 7, 2023 when the ferry resumed and he was the first passenger aboard the first ferry.

Though more ferry and air routes have reopened since then, they remain limited, mostly due to obstruction from the Taiwan authorities.

In September 2024, the Xiamen-Kinmen ferry route reopened to mainland travelers, though only for residents of Fujian province, where Xiamen is located.

Last weekend, 25-year-old Peng Yu from Xiamen revisited Kinmen for the first time in seven years and hoped to visit the Taiwan Island soon. "I really hope the Taiwan authorities will lift more restrictions," she said.

For many Taiwan residents, this route is also a preferred way to reach the mainland.

A young woman surnamed Liu from Taichung in Taiwan has settled in Xiamen, and her family visits her often. "Since there are no direct flights between Taichung and Xiamen, they fly to Kinmen first, then take the ferry across," she said.

To make the journey smoother, Wutong Wharf, the ferry terminal in Xiamen, has rolled out a range of traveler-friendly services.

"Passengers can clear customs quickly using facial recognition," said Chen Qingfeng, an official with the Xiamen Municipal Bureau of Commerce, adding that Taiwan visitors can also get phone cards, bank accounts, residency permits, driver's licenses and other documents without leaving the terminal.

During the Qingming Festival in early April, a time when Chinese families traditionally honor their ancestors, the ferry saw a spike in passengers from Taiwan to the mainland.

A Taiwan businessman surnamed Wang took the ferry to the mainland to visit his ancestral home in East China's Shandong province.

"My cousin still lives there," he said. "My grandfather passed away in Taipei, and I brought his ashes home to be buried in our family's ancestral grave."

The head of a Taoist temple in Chiayi in Taiwan, surnamed Hsiao, also traveled to the mainland during Qingming to visit Wudang Mountain in Central China's Hubei province. This mountain is one of Taoism's most sacred sites.

"Our ancestors came from the mainland, and Xuantian Shangdi, a Taoist deity, was brought from there too. So how can anyone say we're not connected?" Hsiao said.

In recent years, to promote exchanges and cooperation between people on both sides of the Strait, various sectors have hosted events like the Straits Forum, the Cross-Strait Chinese Culture Summit and the Cross-Strait Youth Summit.

The mainland has also introduced policies to ensure Taiwan residents enjoy the same benefits as their mainland counterparts whether in education, employment, entrepreneurship or daily life.

Notably, numbers reflect this deepening connection. In 2024, over 4 million visits were made from Taiwan to the mainland -- a 54.3 percent jump from the previous year. Meanwhile, visits from the mainland to Taiwan reached 382,000 -- representing a year-on-year increase of 49.2 percent.

Hsieh often brings his two children to the mainland. "They love the food, the parks, and all the places to explore," he said with a smile. "But my deepest hope is simple -- that there will be no more obstacles to exchanges across the Strait, and peace will last forever."