General

As of 2010, Taiwan had 1,580 km of railway track. The main trunk line, now electrified, links the main cities of the populous west coast between Chilung and Kaohsiung. A second trunk line, the North Link between Taipei and Hualien on the east coast, was completed in 1979. It connects with an eastern line between Hualien and Taitung, which was modernised in the early 1980s. Construction of the 98-km South Link (between Taitung and Pingtung) has been completed. Forming the last link in the round-the-island rail system, the South Link opened on 6 December 1991, taking over 11 years and $770 million to complete. A total of 685 km of main line were electrified.

As of 2009, Taiwan had an estimated 41,475 km of highways, of which 41,033 km were paved, including 720 km of expressways. In 2003, there were 6,133,794 registered motor vehicles, 5,169,733 of which were passenger cars and 964,061 were commercial vehicles.

Taiwan has five international seaports, all of them extensively modernised in the 1970s. Kaohsiung in the southwest is by far the largest, handling about two-thirds of all imports and exports. Other major ports are Chilung, on the north coast; Hualien and Suao, both on the east coast; and Taichung, on the west coast. As of 2011, Taiwan's merchant marine consisted of 112 vessels of 1,000 GRT or more.

In 2010, there were 41 airports, of which 38 had paved runways. In that same year, there were also four heliports. Taiwan's main international airport, opened in 1979, is Chiang Kai-shek International Airport, at Taoyüan, southwest of Taipei. Taipei Airport handles only domestic flights. Regular domestic flights also reach Hualien, Taitung, Chiai, Tainan and several other cities. Principal air service is provided by China Air Lines, Taiwan's international airline, and other international carriers, and by Taiwan's leading domestic airline, Far Eastern Air Transport.

Overview