Best Chinese Fountain Pen

Fountain pens are known for their style, comfort, and overall elevated writing experience. But some of the more expensive Western pens on the market can feel overpriced for the quality of pen that you get.

That’s where Chinese fountain pens come in. With more bang for your buck, most Chinese pens are high quality and write just as well as ‘premium’ pen brands at only a third of the price.

Our review of the best Chinese fountain pens on the market will help you get acquainted with some of the best fountain pens we’ve come across. After reading our top picks, you’ll be adding some of these beauties to your shopping cart in no time.

6 Best Chinese Fountain Pens (Our Review)

Wing Sung 699

The Wing Sung Yongsheng 699 is one of the best Chinese fountain pens on the market and boasts great value for money.

This plastic-bodied pen is robust and comes with a screw cap that takes just one rotation to fit into place. It also comes with a vacuum filler. Vacuum filling systems are similar to piston fillers, but they can take some getting used to.

To refill your pen, you simply submerge it into your bottled ink and draw it up into the pen by unscrewing the end of the pen. This pulls the plunging mechanism upwards and when you depress the plunger it draws the ink up into the reservoir. It takes a few attempts to fill the ink storage completely, but the payoff is well worth it.

These fountain pens hold a large volume of ink and don’t need to be refilled as often as some other, more expensive pens like Parker or Montblanc.

The large steel nib comes in extra-fine, fine, and medium tips. While the fine nib writes well, though it has a drier feel than the medium, which is wet enough to create some good line variation and definition.

What makes the Wing Sung great is that you can completely shut off the ink flow by tightening the cap – so it makes a fantastic writing and traveling pen that you don’t need to worry about leaking in your bag.

Pros

• Good for traveling
• Good value
• Choice of nib size

Cons

• Not compatible with cartridges

PenBBS 456

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Another vacuum filler fountain pen with a screw-type cap, the No products found. is a close second to the Wing Sung.

The PenBBS is available in various translucent colors and opaque resin designs to suit your style. With the right choice, the PenBBS can fit well in any office or study.

With an upturned nib that comes in steel or 12-carat gold, this handy little fountain pen gives you a smooth writing experience. The nib is available in extra fine and medium, which makes writing with it easy no matter your style.

Because of its vacuum filling mechanism, you need to leave the knob on the end of the pen open to allow continuous ink flow. If you’re only going to write a few short sentences, you can leave the knob closed, although doing this may cause the pen to run dry more quickly.

It’s worth mentioning that the medium nib on the PenBBS writes more finely than a common Western medium.

The fountain pen has a heavier feel than some of the other plastic pens we’ve tried and fits snugly into your hand. Overall, the PenBBS 456 is comfortable and easy to use.

Pros

• Affordable
• Various colorways available
• Upturned nib for comfortable writing

Cons

• Not compatible with cartridges
• Not available in Fine nib

Jinhao 992

If you’re looking for a Chinese fountain pen that’s also beginner-friendly, the Jinhao 992 is the pen for you.

The simplistic, entry-level Jinhao fountain pen has a plastic body with a classic torpedo shape and screw-type cap. What makes it one of our favorite novice pens is the fact that it’s compatible with both Jinhao cartridges and includes a piston filler.

If you’re a newer writer, you won’t have to fuss over refilling the pen with bottled ink, although you can practice using the piston converter if you choose.

Although the pen looks and feels slightly cheaper than some of the other Chinese fountain pens on the market, it’s surprisingly easy to use and writes like a dream. You should be careful when writing with your new pen, though, as the cap has been known to crack often.

This Jinhao pen writes consistently and smoothly, with no line breaks. It is also ready to go whenever you are – with no priming needed.

You’re also spoiled for choice, as the steel nibs come in various sizes. These include 0.5 mm, 0.7 mm, stub 1.1 mm, 1.5 mm, 1.9 mm, 2.5 mm, and 2.9 mm. Whatever your preferred size, the Jinhao has got it.

We love the feel of the pen, as well, although writers with bigger hands may need to post their pen to increase the comfortability. The pen can sometimes feel too small when not posted.

Pros

• Inexpensive
• Good for beginners
• Compatible with cartridges

Cons

• Not as durable as other plastic pens

Moonman M2

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The Moonman M2 is a solid and durable fountain pen encased in a hard plastic body. Sold in both extra-fine and fine tips, the nib is stainless steel and gold in color, which gives it a luxurious feel for a lower-priced and affordable pen.

What sets the Moonman M2 apart from the other pens on this list is that it’s an eyedropper pen. This means that there is no filling mechanism built into the pen itself, but rather it includes an eyedropper that is used to fill the pen by transferring the ink from the eyedropper into the ink reservoir.

Although this may seem like a setback, it gives the pen a much larger ink capacity than others and is much less messy than using other methods of refilling your ink.

The Moonman writes smoothly, although the nibs are finer than most Western sizes, so if you would prefer a medium tip, you may not want to consider this pen. If you prefer a thinner line and stroke on your page, then this is the pen for you.

Pros

• Affordable
• Large ink capacity
• Eyedropper included

Cons

• No built-in filling mechanism
• Not sold in a Medium nib

PenBBS 309

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The PenBBS 309 is another fountain pen with a larger-than-normal ink capacity. This piston-filling pen has a plastic body that is sold in a variety of colors. Included in these colors is a range of acrylics that have beautiful and eye-catching patterns and designs.

The pen is slightly bigger than your average Chinese fountain pen to accommodate the ink storage. While this may be a problem for writers with smaller hands, the pen is lightweight and easy to get the hang of once you start writing.

With a stainless steel nib available in a fine and medium tip, this is the perfect all-rounder pen. You will have to use caution when refilling your ink, though, as the piston doesn’t have a stopper, and so it can come off if you don’t know when to stop unscrewing the top.

This is easily remedied, though, as you can simply practice unscrewing your pen while it is empty to get a feel for when you need to stop.

Pros

• Large ink capacity
• Sold in a variety of colors

Cons

• No stopper on piston
• Large pen

PenBBS 350

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The third PenBBS pen on our list is the 350. This stunning pen is set apart by its fully metallic body and the rollerball adapter that it comes with.

The pen is convertible, and you can use the rollerball head with the same fountain pen ink you use in your reservoir. To change your pen to a fountain pen or rollerball, you simply need to remove the nib and feed from the tip of your pen and push the other head onto the body of the pen.

Because it has both a rollerball and fountain head, the pen only comes with a fine tip stainless steel nib. The pen also has a smaller ink storage because of this feature, although it doesn’t seem to be a problem when refilling.

The pen uses a converter filling mechanism, or you can easily replace the ink with cartridges.

Pros

• Convertible heads
• Aluminum body

Cons

• Heavy
• Smaller ink storage

Conclusion

Whether you’ve been on the fence about buying a traditional Chinese fountain pen, or you’re a beginner looking for an inexpensive fountain pen to help introduce you to the hobby, there’s sure to be something here for you.

Our list of pens has been hand-picked based on their overall writing abilities, affordability, and their quality.

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