Over 10,000 people have traveled on Haixia's Pingtan-Taipei route since it opened four months ago.

Haixia, the world's fastest high-speed roll-on/roll-off passenger ferry, started to operate in Pingtan - with a route between the island county and Taichung - in late 2011. It opened the route to Taipei on Oct 9, 2013.

Yang Cheng, general manager of the company that owns Haixia , said that, as of Feb 15, Haixia has made 23 round trips between Pingtan and Taipei, carrying 10,286 passengers – 4,919 departing from Pingtan and 5,376 from Taipei.

Zhang Siwei, an executive with the company, said that the ferry enjoyed a surge in passenger numbers during the Spring Festival holiday.

The trip from Pingtan to Taipei on Haixia only takes 2.5 hours.

The ferry commutes between Pingtan and Taipei on Wednesdays and Saturdays and beginning in April, it will also operate this route on Mondays.

Edited by Chen Zhilin and Niva Whyman