Star Ferry facts for kids
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Star Ferry Pier at Tsim Sha Tsui
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| Ferry services across Victoria Harbour | |
| Founded | 1888 |
| Founder | Dorabjee Naorojee Mithaiwala |
| Headquarters | Hong Kong |
| Revenue | HK$72 million (2006) |
| Owner | Wharf REIC (100%) |
| Parent | Wharf REIC |
| Star Ferry | |||||||||||||||||
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The ferry Meridian Star
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| Traditional Chinese | 天星小輪 | ||||||||||||||||
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The Star Ferry (Chinese: 天星小輪) is a famous passenger ferry service and a popular tourist attraction in Hong Kong. Its main job is to carry people across Victoria Harbour, connecting Hong Kong Island and Kowloon. The Star Ferry Company runs this service. It started in 1888 as the Kowloon Ferry Company and changed its name to Star Ferry in 1898.
The company has twelve ferries. They carry over 70,000 passengers every day! That's about 26 million people each year. Even though there are railway and road tunnels under the harbour, the Star Ferry is still a fun and cheap way to cross. The most popular route goes between Central and Tsim Sha Tsui.
History of the Star Ferry
Before steam ferries, people crossed the harbour in simple wooden boats called sampans. In 1870, a man named Grant Smith brought a special wooden boat from England. He started offering rides across the harbour.
In 1888, a merchant named Dorabjee Naorojee Mithaiwala bought Smith's boat. He also got two more steam boats and named them Morning Star and Evening Star. He called his business the "Kowloon Ferry Company."
When the ferry service began, sailors would throw a rope from the boat to a person on the pier. That person would catch it with a long pole called a billhook. This old method is still used today!
The ferries became very popular. Within 10 years, Dorabjee Naorojee Mithaiwala had four boats: Morning Star, Evening Star, Rising Star, and Guiding Star. Each boat could hold 100 passengers. They made about 147 trips every day! In 1898, he officially named his company "Star Ferry Co Ltd." He loved a poem called "Crossing the Bar" by Alfred Lord Tennyson. The first line of the poem, "Sunset and evening star," inspired the names of his boats and his company.
When he retired in 1898, Dorabjee Naorojee Mithaiwala sold the company. It was bought by The Hongkong and Kowloon Wharf and Godown Company Limited.
A new pier was built in 1906. It was a big, impressive building with separate sections for different classes of passengers. But a strong typhoon destroyed it in September 1906.
Around 1912, the Star Ferry and the tramways decided to only accept Hong Kong money. Before this, money from Canton (a city in China) was also used. This change caused some debate.
In 1933, the Star Ferry made history by building the Electric Star. It was the first ferry of its kind to use a diesel-electric engine.
By 1941, the company had six ferries. During the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong, two Star Ferries, the Golden Star and the Electric Star, were used by the Japanese. The Golden Star was bombed and sunk in 1943. The Electric Star was also sunk in the harbour. After the war, these ferries were found and put back into service.
In the 1950s, new ferry terminals were built on both sides of Victoria Harbour. They were designed to handle 55 million passenger trips each year. These new terminals were finished in 1957.
The Star Ferry agreed to start a new route to Hung Hom in 1963. They weren't sure if it would make money, but after thinking it over, the route started in March 1965.
Until the Cross-Harbour Tunnel opened in 1972, the Star Ferry was the main way for people to travel between Hong Kong Island and Kowloon.
In 2009, the Star Ferry was named one of the "Top 10 Most Exciting Ferry Rides" by the Society of American Travel Writers.
The Star Ferry operates with a special agreement from the government. This agreement was last renewed in March 2018.
Important Events
In 1966, the Star Ferry raised its ticket price by a small amount (5 cents). This led to a 27-year-old student going on a hunger strike to protest. His arrest sparked some public unrest in Hong Kong.
On November 11, 2006, an important pier in Central, the Edinburgh Place Ferry Pier, closed down. This pier, with its famous clock tower, was removed to make space for new land. Many people protested this decision peacefully.
Star Ferry Services
The Star Ferry offers several ways to cross the harbour. Here are the main routes and their prices (as of February 9, 2021):
- Central to Tsim Sha Tsui:
* Lower deck: HK$4 on weekdays; HK$5.60 on weekends and holidays. * Upper deck: HK$5 on weekdays; HK$6.50 on weekends and holidays.
- Wan Chai to Tsim Sha Tsui: HK$5 on weekdays; HK$6.50 on weekends and holidays.
- Harbour Tour: This is a special tourist cruise. It takes a longer, circular route to all the stops: Tsim Sha Tsui, Central, and Wan Chai.
You can pay for your ride using an Octopus card or special tokens. You can buy tokens from vending machines at the piers. You can no longer pay directly with coins at the turnstile.
You cannot take bicycles on the Tsim Sha Tsui – Central route. However, you can take bicycles on the Tsim Sha Tsui – Wan Chai route for an extra HK$14. But you can't take bikes from Wan Chai to Tsim Sha Tsui during the busy evening hours.
The Star Ferry also plans to offer a sightseeing service between Tsim Sha Tsui and Hong Kong Disneyland. This trip will cost HK$180 for a round trip. Passengers can enjoy views of the Tsing Ma Bridge during the 45-minute journey on the luxury ferry World Star.
Past Routes
- Central to Hung Hom: This route stopped on April 1, 2011.
- Wan Chai to Hung Hom: This route also stopped on April 1, 2011.
Rent a Ferry!
The Star Ferry Golden Star can be rented for special events. It can hold up to 300 people. It has been updated with tables, bigger windows for sightseeing, an air-conditioned area, and a music system.
Star Ferry Boats
The Star Ferry fleet currently has 9 ferries that use a special diesel-electric engine. They also have a tugboat.
Over the years, many different boats have been part of the Star Ferry family. Here are some of them:
| Name | Year Built |
Seats | Notes | Image |
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| Morning Star (曉星號) |
1871 | app 100 | The very first "Star" Ferry, used from 1871 to 1898. |  |
| Evening Star (夜星號) |
1888 | 100 | The second "Star" Ferry, used from 1888 to 1902. | |
| Rising Star (高星號) |
1890 | 100 | Used from 1890 to 1902. | |
| Guiding Star (導星號) |
1896 | 100 | Used from 1896 to 1904. | |
| Morning Star (曉星號) |
1898 | Used from 1898 to 1903. |  |
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| Northern Star (北星號) |
1900 | Used from 1900 to 1959. | ||
| Polar Star (極星號) |
1901 | Used from 1901 to 1927. | ||
| Morning Star (曉星號) |
1904 | Used from 1904 to 1928. |  |
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| Electric Star (電星號) |
1933 | Used from 1933 to 1968. It was sunk in 1943 but later fixed and changed to a diesel boat in 1948. | ||
| Golden Star (金星號) |
1928 | Used from 1928 to 1968. It was sunk in 1943 but later fixed and changed to a diesel boat in 1953. This ferry can be rented today! | ||
| Celestial Star (天星號) |
1956 | 576 | One of the oldest ferries still in service. |  |
| Meridian Star (午星號) |
1958 | 484 | Was changed in 2012 for the Harbour Tour, then changed back to a regular ferry in 2013. |  |
| Solar Star (日星號) |
1958 | 547 |  |
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| Northern Star (北星號) |
1959 | 547 |  |
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| Night Star (夜星號) |
1963 | 576 | Named after one of the original Kowloon Ferry Company boats. |  |
| Day Star (晨星號) |
1964 | 576 |  |
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| Shining Star (輝星號) |
1964 | 576 | Now used for the Star Ferry Harbour Tour. Its top sections were opened up. |  |
| Twinkling Star (熒星號) |
1964 | 576 |  |
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| Morning Star (曉星號) |
1965 | 399 | Named after one of the original Kowloon Ferry Company boats. It got a new engine system in 2020. |  |
| Silver Star (銀星號) |
1965 | 399 | It got a new engine system in 2021. |  |
| Golden Star (金星號) |
1989 | 762 | Sold to a private owner in 2011. |  |
| World Star (世星號) |
1989 | 762 |  |
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| Kowloon | This is a Tugboat used by the company. |
Star Ferry Piers
The Star Ferry uses several piers (docks) where passengers get on and off the boats.
- Star Ferry Pier, Central at Central District:
* The first pier was built in 1890. * The second pier was built in 1912. * The third pier (Edinburgh Place Ferry Pier) was built in 1957. * The current (fourth) pier was built in 2006. It includes Pier 7 of the Central Ferry Piers. Pier 8 was turned into a museum in 2013.
- Star Ferry Pier at Tsim Sha Tsui (built in 1957).
- Wan Chai Pier:
* The second pier was built in 1968 and closed in 2014. * The current (third) pier has been in use since August 30, 2014.
- Hung Hom Ferry Pier: Star Ferry service to this pier stopped on April 1, 2011.
Why Some Routes Closed
When the Central Star Ferry Pier moved from its old spot to a new one near the International Finance Centre, fewer people used it for daily travel. Now, mostly tourists and a small number of commuters use it. Because of this, the Star Ferry company lost a lot of money. So, they decided to stop operating the routes to Hung Hom (from Central and Wan Chai) on March 31, 2011.
Star Ferry in Movies
The Star Ferry has appeared in several movies!
- In the 1960 film The World of Suzie Wong, the main character, Robert Lomax, takes the Star Ferry to Hong Kong Island and meets Suzie Wong on board.
- Short scenes in the 1988 TV show Noble House also take place on the ferry.
- It also appears in the French films Les Anges gardiens (1995) and The Moustache (2005).
See also
- Hong Kong & Kowloon Ferry
- List of places in Hong Kong
- Transport in Hong Kong
