[CN & TW; 2024] Day 1 | Xiamen to Kinmen || Wheelchair series 🧑🦽➡️
This will be one of my favourite trips for some time! I'm really excited to write about my trip to Kinmen, where both my paternal and maternal roots originate. (I'm a true blue 3rd gen Singaporean).
Getting to Kinmen requires a bit of planning as there are no direct flights from Singapore. Two options:
- Fly to Taipei and transfer to a domestic flight
- Fly to Xiamen and take a ferry
We opted for the second option as taking a flight from Taipei means we need to change from Taoyuan to Songshan airport, which is quite a hassle. Well~ it doesn't mean that the Xiamen option is easier...
Note that this is also a wheelchair series - doubling the challenge of this trip!
Day 1: Arrival at Xiamen
The immigrant was still alright... They had dedicated staff that supported us to push the wheelchair all the way until the luggage belt. I suggest not to fill up the immigrant card online, printing the form out in the airport was a hassle, it will be easier to just do the manual filling up of the card.
Well - getting a taxi was more challenging. We have 4 pax with 2 medium size luggage plus a foldable wheelchair. Technically it can fit a normal taxi, it just require some time and adjustment - like fixing a puzzle, and the airport staff insisted us to try a normal cab, but the driver was complaining that it doesn't fit. Thankfully there was a bigger taxi next in line, and the first driver was happy to let us go.
Why not book a bigger taxi from didi? It was our first time in China after 15 years, we thought grabbing a taxi directly from the airport will be easy, but apparently no. We learnt our mistake.
We got a cute driver that made the ride rather interesting! The ride ended up more expensive than didi app price, but it was still very inexpensive compared to Singapore, so all good as long as we got there in time for our ferry. We were thankful that the wechat pay worked out well to pay for the taxi ride! (Note: we did not exchange a single Chinese yuan renminbi, CNY currency, we used wechat pay and alipay)
Ferry ride to Kinmen
I booked the ferry tickets in advance on klook: https://www.klook.com/en-SG/activity/11653-kinmen-xiamen-quanzhou-harbor-ferry-one-way-ticket-kinmen/
So I tried booking the ferry tickets on the website and etc, and it didn't work as they were more catered for Taiwanese citizens. You can also buy tickets on the spot, but I don't want to risk the chance, so klook it was! Of course, it was more expensive to book through klook as they are a third-party agent.
Picking up the tickets was easy, just queue at the ground floor counter and present your passport an hour before your ferry schedule time.
Note: There will be people approaching you at the ferry terminal if you would like to purchase dried mushrooms and sell them over to Kinmen for a profit - please do not so do! There are restrictions on the amount of dried goods you can bring in to Kinmen.
We had to go through another around of immigrant to exit China, and wheelchair user had some priority throughout the whole process.
Happy boarding!
There was bridges for luggage, which can also be used for wheelchairs, so it wasn't that hard to get on the ferry. But the ferry is NOT wheelchair friendly, there were curbs and such that requires 2 person to lift up the wheelchair.
The ride was quite efficient - 30 minutes and we arrived in Kinmen!
Kinmen Ferry Terminal to Accommodation
Immigration at Kinmen was a breeze~ we are the only foreigners on the ferry (the rest are all locals), so the immigration lady helped me to fill up all our immigrants cards within seconds.
And again, finding a taxi to the accommodation was the most challenging part. The taxis right infront of the ferry terminal refused to pick us up with wheelchair, so we had to walk a little more to the other side of the ferry terminal where one of the drivers unwillingly picked us up. She doesn't want to do meter fare, so we had no choice but to accept whatever price that the driver quoted us. I think it was between NTD 250-350 for a short trip to the city center. It wasn't a very pleasant experience - never liked taking taxis in Taiwan anyway.
We managed to check-in our accommodation:
The homestay aka minsu was ran by a family - they were very nice and friendly.
We booked the room with 2 beds at the ground floor, and a loft:
The washroom was a little small as it was an old housing design, the owners were very apologetic because we had someone on wheelchair - and I had to tell them repeatedly it was alright.
Dinner and walk around Jincheng 金城
It was quite an interesting walk around the small city center - Jincheng!
We stopped by a shop for dinner:
滿坐小店
The kitchen was extremely busy and they got some orders mixed up, but the food were very yummy:
I missed out taking some food photos, but I highly recommend their 蚵仔煎 Oyster Egg Omelette - it was totally different from the ones I had in Taiwan mainland!
And I discovered a very nice bubble green tea - I bought some back home from 711 on the last day:
We decided to explore the city a little more before heading back to sleep:
The pavements are not very wheelchair friendly, but because they have so much scooters, there were still slopes and etc to make it accessible. Most of the time we just pushed the wheelchair on the roads, and the drivers were very understanding.
The drainage cover has the word "houpu 後浦" which is the old name of Jincheng.
We bought more drinks for the walk:
得月觀止（金城店）
It is a bubble tea store that mixed sorghum 高粱 in their drinks! I tried the Sorghum Milk Tea and it was interestingly nice!
果然果汁｜KINMEN JUICE
And also a mixed fruit juice from a store nearby - it was fresh and yummy!
We ended the night at this popular landmark in Jincheng:
後浦16藝文特區
The buildings are beautifully preserved (with fairy lights), and some small stores that sells all kinds of handmade stuffs, bars, and cafes. It was very pretty at night - would recommend to come in the evening!
Please look forward to the day 2 adventure!
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