Star Ferry - Books - Famous Chinese Shopping City

March 8, 2014


		1 Introduction 2 Cross-harbour routes and fares 3 History 4 Ongoing events 5 See also 6 External link

Famous Chinese Shopping City Books

Star Ferry

Wikipedia

image:hkstarferry.JPG|thumb|300px|Hong Kong Star Ferry.

The Star Ferry in Hong Kong a passenger ferry service operator whose principal routes take people across Victoria Harbour, between Hong Kong Island and Kowloon. The company has been operating since the late 1880s.

The fleet of nine ferry|ferries operates four routes across the harbour, carrying over 70,000 passengers a day, or 26 million a year. The ferries were built in the 1950s by the Wharf dockyard, and the company is still owned by Wharf today (even though they have since redeveloped their dockyards), which also own Hong Kong Tramways.

Even though there are now more modern ways to cross the harbour by MTR and road tunnels, the Star Ferry continues to provide an efficient, popular and inexpensive mode of crossing the harbour. The company's main route is that between Central, Hong Kong|Central and Tsim Sha Tsui, which is what most people mean by "the Star Ferry" in common parlance. This route is also popular with tourists, becoming one of the icons of Hong Kong heritage in the eyes of tourists. From the ferry people can see the famous view of the harbour and the Hong Kong skyline.

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Cross-harbour routes and fares

Central, Hong Kong|Central to Tsim Sha Tsui

Wan Chai District|Wan Chai to Tsim Sha Tsui

Central to Hung Hom

Wan Chai to Hung Hom

The Star Ferry charges HK$1.7 for the lower deck between Central and Tsim Sha Tsui, and HK$2.2 for the upper deck between Central and Tsim Sha Tsui. The route between Wan Chai and Tsim Sha Tsui charges HK$2.2. The two Hung Hom routes charges HK$5.3.

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History

In 1966, a fare increase of 10 cents of the ferry sparked important unrest in Hong Kong

Until the opening of the Cross Harbour Tunnel in 1972, the Star Ferry was the main mean of public transportation between Hong Kong Island and the mainland.

In 2003, the Star Ferry began a tourist cruise, making an indirect, circular route to all the stops.

The Star Ferry makes a "star turn" in the 1950s film The World of Suzy Wong. In the beginning of the film, William Holden debarks from the USS President Harrison (an old American President Line transpacific passenger vessel) and takes the Star Ferry to Hong Kong island, and on the ferry meets Suzy Wong, who scorns his attentions as unwanted.

The ferry itself is completely recognizable, and the layout of the pier where William Holden debarks in Kowloon is familiar to the resident or denizen of Tsim Sha Shue, but missing are the giant shopping malls of today.

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Ongoing events

The Star Ferry Pier at Edinburgh Square, Central, together with Queen's Pier, will be demolished as a result of land reclamation along the north shore of Hong Kong Island. Both piers will be re-provisioned further out into the harbour on reclaimed land. Part of the new pier for the Star Ferry will be an existing pier built at the time of the reclamation on which the Hong Kong Station (MTR)|Honk Kong Station of the Airport Express (MTR)|Airport Express MTR line and the International Finance Centre are built (i.e. no.7 of the outlying islands ferry piers). This pier is being rebuilt and expanded to resemble the pier that was used for the Star Ferry before the existing, soon-to-be-demolished pier was built.

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