Star Ferry - Ten Minutes Across Victoria Harbour
Photo: LN9267, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
A stop on Hong Kong: Star Ferry to the Peak, a free self-guided tour.
The Star Ferry is one of the world's great short boat rides, and the timetable puts the crossing at about nine minutes. Tap your Octopus card at the turnstile in Tsim Sha Tsui, find a seat by the rail, and watch the skyline of Hong Kong Island grow in front of you.
The service began in 1888, when Parsee merchant Dorabjee Naorojee Mithaiwala started the Kowloon Ferry Company. It took the Star Ferry name in 1898, and its green-and-white boats still carry names ending in Star. For most of the 20th century, these ferries were one of the main links between Kowloon and the island.
Notice how much of the harbor has been filled in over the years. You land at Central Pier 7, which opened in 2006 on reclaimed land about 300 meters out from the earlier pier site. Its clock tower and Edwardian look are a deliberate echo of the older pier it replaced.
Getting here: Walk back west along the promenade to the Star Ferry pier beside the Clock Tower, tap your Octopus card at the turnstile, and take the ferry to Central.
Did you know?: Crews still moor the ferries the old way: a deckhand tosses a rope to a worker on the pier, who catches it with a long hooked pole.
Photo op: Take a seat on the open side of the deck: shoot the Clock Tower and Kowloon falling away as you leave, then the towers of Central as the ferry swings in to Pier 7.
More on Wikipedia: Star Ferry · Victoria Harbour · Star Ferry Pier, Central · Octopus card
Stops on this tour
- Clock Tower - Last Call for the Kowloon Terminus
- Avenue of Stars - Hong Kong Cinema by the Harbor
- Star Ferry - Ten Minutes Across Victoria Harbour
- Statue Square - Named for Statues Mostly Gone
- Court of Final Appeal - Justice on a Timber Raft
- HSBC and Bank of China - Two Banks, Two Landmarks
- Mid-Levels Escalator - Riding Uphill Through SoHo
- Man Mo Temple - Incense Coils on Hollywood Road
- PMQ - Police Flats Turned Design Hub
- Tai Kwun - Police Station, Court and Jail
- Peak Tram - Asia's First Funicular
- Victoria Peak - The View That Built a Neighborhood