The Peak Tram - 125 years of ups and downs

Domestic workers with chickens in one hand and bags of vegetables in the other used to crowd onto the Peak Tram, but dared not sit down until they were sure the governor wasn't there.

Cramming aboard the tram hasn't changed much, but almost everything else about the oldest funicular railway in Asia has been transformed since it first trundled up the hill more than a century ago.

The tramway, which celebrates its 125th anniversary this year, served both workers and affluent residents on the Peak and ended an era in which people were carried uphill on sedan chairs, horses and donkeys.

Climbing the steep slopes of Victoria Peak, the tramway has witnessed huge changes in Hong Kong, from the narrowing harbour and the skyward thrust of buildings to the transformed social status of Chinese people in th city.

The tram itself has also been transformed. Following its humble beginnings in a small terminus on Garden Road serving British businessmen in hats and neat suits and Chinese workers carrying baskets, the tram now serves six million people each year from all over the world.

While anyone who reaches the head of the often long queue can take any seat these days, that wasn't the case a century ago.

A 30-seat tram car was divided into three classes and the first two seats were reserved for the governor, said May Tsang Ying-mei, general manager of Peak Tramways. There was a brass plaque behind those two seats reminding passengers of the rule.