Taiwan’s Kinmen islands – a 30-minute ferry ride from Xiamen – experienced their first post-pandemic influx of mainland Chinese tourists during the 1–5 May Golden-Week holiday. Daily arrivals exceeded 1,000, peaking at 2,030 on 2 May, and every ferry sailed at or near capacity, according to Taiwan’s National Immigration Agency (NIA). To avoid bottlenecks at the new Kinmen Port Passenger Center (opened February 2026), border officers activated a flexible staffing plan.
![Kinmen’s ‘mini-three-links’ face mainland tourist surge; Taiwan immigration deploys extra staff]()
Travelers looking to streamline visa or entry-permit paperwork—whether for Kinmen’s landing-visa scheme or for onward journeys into mainland China—can turn to VisaHQ for fast, reliable assistance. The company’s dedicated China page (https://www.visahq.com/china/) provides up-to-date requirements, digital application tools, and concierge support that help both leisure tourists and corporate travel planners navigate cross-strait regulations with ease.
Additional counters were opened and the e-Gate automated-clearance system was kept running around the clock, enabling officials to keep wait times within “acceptable ranges” despite crowds. The NIA also stationed multilingual staff in the arrivals hall to guide travelers through document checks and health-declaration kiosks. For Chinese tour operators the smoother flow revives a popular side trip: Kinmen’s battlefield heritage sites and duty-free stores can be folded into Fujian tour packages without visa headaches. Mainland visitors enter Kinmen under a landing-visa regime negotiated specifically for the “mini-three-links”, separate from Taiwan’s broader Entry Permit system. Corporate travel planners moving staff between Xiamen and Taipei should note that the Kinmen link can be a time-saving alternative to longer cross-strait flights when seats are scarce. Local businesses are lobbying for longer opening hours and more e-Gate lanes before the summer school break, when another spike is expected. Taiwan’s transport ministry is meanwhile assessing whether to add a high-speed ferry capable of carrying tour buses, which would make Kinmen an even more attractive staging point for MICE events targeting both mainland and Taiwanese participants. The episode also offers a preview of how cross-strait mobility could scale if broader tourism talks resume later this year. For now, however, capacity hinges on the ability of Kinmen’s border facilities – and the NIA’s staffing budget – to keep pace with demand.
Travelers looking to streamline visa or entry-permit paperwork—whether for Kinmen’s landing-visa scheme or for onward journeys into mainland China—can turn to VisaHQ for fast, reliable assistance. The company’s dedicated China page (https://www.visahq.com/china/) provides up-to-date requirements, digital application tools, and concierge support that help both leisure tourists and corporate travel planners navigate cross-strait regulations with ease.
Additional counters were opened and the e-Gate automated-clearance system was kept running around the clock, enabling officials to keep wait times within “acceptable ranges” despite crowds. The NIA also stationed multilingual staff in the arrivals hall to guide travelers through document checks and health-declaration kiosks. For Chinese tour operators the smoother flow revives a popular side trip: Kinmen’s battlefield heritage sites and duty-free stores can be folded into Fujian tour packages without visa headaches. Mainland visitors enter Kinmen under a landing-visa regime negotiated specifically for the “mini-three-links”, separate from Taiwan’s broader Entry Permit system. Corporate travel planners moving staff between Xiamen and Taipei should note that the Kinmen link can be a time-saving alternative to longer cross-strait flights when seats are scarce. Local businesses are lobbying for longer opening hours and more e-Gate lanes before the summer school break, when another spike is expected. Taiwan’s transport ministry is meanwhile assessing whether to add a high-speed ferry capable of carrying tour buses, which would make Kinmen an even more attractive staging point for MICE events targeting both mainland and Taiwanese participants. The episode also offers a preview of how cross-strait mobility could scale if broader tourism talks resume later this year. For now, however, capacity hinges on the ability of Kinmen’s border facilities – and the NIA’s staffing budget – to keep pace with demand.
