The ferries of Hong Kong are a wonderful, economical and very scenic way to get around town, should your travels take you across the waters of Victoria Harbour or elsewhere. The oldest of these is the Star Ferry line which runs from Central to Kowloon. Originally, sampans, or large Chinese dinghies, usually powered by a long oar, but later by engines, ferried people across. (The Royal Kong Kong Yacht Club still uses a sampan to ferry people out to boats at moorings and from the Jardine Noonday Gun to the club). In 1870 a man named Grant Smith brought a twin screw wooden-hulled ferry from England and the rest, is, as they say, history. The Star Ferry (under various names) has been in existence since then with some minor disturbances, such as the Japanese occupation in WW II. The fare is currently HK$ 2.2 (about US.30 cents) for adults on weekdays and HK$3.1 (about US .40 cents) on weekends. In 1966, a 5 cent fare increase caused a hunger strike followed by riots (!). In any event, the fare is very reasonable, and with the fare, included for free, comes an absolutely breathtaking view; particularly at night, when all the buildings in HK are lit up or have large advertisements that billow and change across them like electronic billboards. On the Kowloon side, in Tsim Sha Tsui, there is food, shopping and musicians who set up and play impromptu concerts with varying degrees of musical talents, but for the most part, they are quite good.
all in all one of the most inexpensive, and fun, touristy thing to do in HK. TGGL highly recommends this!
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