The Star Ferry is a passenger ferry service operator in Hong Kong, China.

Its principal routes carry passengers across the Victoria Harbour, between Hong Kong Island and Kowloon. The company has been operating since the late 1880s. It was founded by Parsee Dorabjee Nowrojee as the Kowloon Ferry Company in 1888. He renamed it the Star Ferry in 1898, inspired by his love of Alfred Lord Tennyson's poem "Crossing the Bar", of which the first line reads Sunset and evening star, and one clear call for me!.

The fleet of twelve ferries operates four routes across the harbour, carrying over 70,000 passengers a day, or 26 million a year. Even though there are now other 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 runs between 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, and has become one of the icons of Hong Kong heritage in the eyes of tourists. From the ferry, one can take in the famous view of the harbour and the Hong Kong skyline.

Ferry routes and fares

The Star Ferry operates the following cross-harbour routes:

* Central to Tsim Sha Tsui, costing HK$1.7 for the lower deck, HK$2.2 for the upper deck
* Wan Chai to Tsim Sha Tsui for HK$2.2
* Central to Hung Hom for HK$5.3
* Wan Chai to Hung Hom for HK$5.3
* Harbour Tour: a tourist cruise, making an indirect, circular route to all the stops, namely Tsim Sha Tsui, Central, Wan Chai, and Hung Hom.

History

* In 1966, a fare increase of 10 cents of the ferry sparked the 1966 Hong Kong Riots.
* Until the opening of the Cross Harbour Tunnel in 1972, the Star Ferry was the main means of public transportation between Hong Kong Island and the Kowloon side.

The Star Ferry makes a "star turn" in the 1950s film The World of Suzie Wong. In the beginning of the film, Robert Lomax (played by 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 Suzie Wong (played by Nancy Kwan), 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 Tsui, but missing are the giant shopping malls of today.

On November 11, 2006, the end of an era was marked when the third generation pier in Central, the Edinburgh Place Ferry Pier, ended its mission, along with the big clock tower. The pier will be demolished to make way for reclamation.