Kaohsiung-Siaoliouciou ferry link opens

The long-awaited Kaohsiung-Siaoliouciou (小琉球) ferry service was used by about 450 tourists during the weekend after making its maiden trip on Saturday.

"Saturday's two round trips, with 150 people on board, were at full capacity, but we only had some 70 passengers on each ride yesterday," said Jimmy Tsai (蔡建祥), sales manager at Ocean Legend Develop Ltd (海洋傳奇開發公司), which operates the ferry.

The ferry service opened on Saturday with Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) and Pingtung County Magistrate Tsao Chih-hung (曹啟鴻) attending the ceremony.

During the ceremony, the Princess Butterfly (蝴蝶公主號) left Kaohsiung harbor's "True Love wharf (真愛碼頭)" as the ferry owner's daughter was getting married.

The operator of the ferry said that a round trip will run every Friday and two round trips will be made every weekend and holidays. Ferry services by reservation will be offered to groups with a minimum of 30 passengers from Monday to Thursday, Tsai said yesterday.

The new route marked the completion of a "blue highway" off the nation's southwestern coast, covering Kaohsiung City and county and Pingtung County, Wu Chun-mei (吳春梅), chief executive officer of the Kaohsiung Tourism Association, said on Saturday.

The route cuts the travel time between Kaohsiung and Siaoliouciou Island to one hour and costs NT$700 (US$22) per head.