Fujian Travel

Meizhou Island is situated in the northern half of the mouth of Meizhou Bay, about 3.3 kilometers from the mainland and 133 km away from Taichung Port of Taiwan. Meizhou Island is a national 4A tourism zone, covering an area of 14.4 square kilometers, and the island is shrouded with lush green verdure. The coastline stretched over 20 kilometers of fine beaches, which is devided into 13 beach resorts.

Meizhou Island famous as the hometown of Mazu, Chinese Goddess of the Sea, and the birthplace of the Mazu Culture. Legend said that Mazu originally named as Lin Mo (960-987 AD), and she was very intelligent and had both medical and navigational skills. In her short life, she both saved and blessed many fishermen and villagers. Deeply gratitude by her great compassion and high spirit, later generations built a memorial temple dedicate to her upon Meiyu Peak. Nowadays, Mazu temple is flourish with worshippers who come for Mazus’ blessing. The statue of Mazu looks like full of compassion, elegant and graceful, stands beside the sea, blessing her descendant’s safety and happiness.

Mazu Temple originally was built in 987 AD, the same year of Lin Mo`s pass away. After thousands years of development, the belief in Mazu has gradually spread from Meizhou Island to all over the world. Today, there are approximately 200 million believers throughout the world. On the 23rd of the third lunar month and 9th of the ninth lunar month, which are the dates when the Sea Godess Mazu was born and passed away respectively, this time is when most people come to Mazu Temple to pilgrimage.

To access Meizhou Island, visitors can start from Putian Bus Station to Wenjia Port, it is about 1 hour travel time. In Wenjia port, tourists have two options to go to Meizhou Island, the first is by ferry which arrived every hour or the faster option is by speed boat which arrived every 15 minutes.