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By Water
The ports of Taichung, Hualien and Suao are only visited by cargo ships. Weekly international passenger ferries run between the Taiwanese Keelung and Kaohsiung ports and Naha, the capital of the southern Japanese-island of Okinawa. The overnight ferry, which takes from 16 to 20 hours to reach Keelung, departs from Okinawa on Thursday or Friday. Arimura Sangyo Company (tel: + 81 (098) 860 1980 in Japan or (07) 330 9811 in Kaohsiung). Star Cruises' 'Gemini' also plies this route (tel: + 81 (03) 6403 5188 in Japan or (02) 2731 0808 in Taiwan; website: www.starcruises.com.tw). There are also sea links between Kaosiung and Macau.
By Rail
Electrified train services run along the west coast and diesel trains along the east coast. Services are frequent, although often slow, and less expensive than flying. The main city station is Taipei railway station (tel: 081 231 919 (toll free) or (02) 2311 0121, 2371 3558; website: www.railway.gov.tw) where services run from 0600-0000. Taiwan High Speed Rail are in the process of constructing a high speed rail link, which will run north-south from Taipei to Kaoshiung, the line is expected to open at the end of October 2006 (website: www.thsrc.com.tw)
By Road
As Taiwan is an island, you can't drive to Taipei from any other country. Two freeways run north to south. There are two major freeways into Taipei: Freeway No. 1 or the Chung-Shan freeway and Freeway No. 3 or the north-south freeway, known locally as the second freeway. Both go more or less north/south. From Freeway No. 1, take the Chung-Ching South Road and pass Chien-Kuo South Road to Chung-Hsio East Road to get into the city. From Freeway No. 3, take the Mu-Chia Road, pass Hsin-Hai Road and Fu-Hsing South Road to Chung-Hsio East Road. Taiwan has a higher car ownership per head than any country in the world, so the freeways are often congested.
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