Ferry

The Yuehai Ferry is a train and vehicle ferry connecting two Chinese provinces, Guangdong and Hainan. The ferries run across the Qiongzhou Strait, between Zhanjiang, Guangdong and Haikou's South Port which is a few hundred meters northwest of Haikou Railway Station. 

When ferries containing railway cars arrive from Zhanjiang at the Haikou South Port, passengers not travelling in railway cars disembark. The passenger railway cars are unloaded from the ferries onto tracks. An engine car attaches to these passenger cars, and then it travels to the Haikou Railway Station. There, the passengers exit the railway cars and leave through the station. They may also connect to the Hainan Eastern Ring High-Speed Railway. Train cars carrying cargo also use this ferry service. These cars travel through the Haikou Railway Station, onto the Hainan Western Ring Railway, to other locations in Hainan, such as Dongfang. 

The line has been in operation since January 2003, carrying both freight and passenger trains, enabling direct train services between the mainland and the cities of Haikou and Sanya on Hainan Island. In 2010, two ferry boats were in operation, Yuehai No 1 and Yuehai No 2. The third boat, Yuehai No 3, was launched in Tianjin in September 2010. 

Yuehai No 3 and the fourth boat, Yuehai No 4, entered revenue service with the ferry company on February 1, 2013. The two 23,000-ton vessels are 188 meters long, 23 meters wide and 15.3 meters high. The vessels carry rail cars at the lower deck and cars on the upper deck, which is also home to passenger compartments. They travel at the speed of up to 17 knots.