SAMPAN OPERATOR To Sang waits to take hikers and locals from Wong Shek Pier to remote areas and islands off Sai Kung. He also keeps watch for any marine police. As the sun dips into the cool, green waters and shadows lengthen over rolling hills, campers appear at the pier. This is peak time for To, 58, who has been waiting for hours offshore.
'Sampan,' he cries. 'Where are you going?' But before the walkers can negotiate a price, a police boat speeds into view. Wasting no time, To revs the sampan's motor and takes off, alone.
However, as soon as the police officers leave after distributing flyers urging people not to take sampans, he returns to pick up passengers. Two teenagers wanting to spend the night in Chek Keng clamber aboard. They've missed the last ferry from Wong Shek Pier that stops at this isolated village in Sai Kung East Country Park and they don't fancy making the two-hour hike there.
In running his illegal service, To - like about 40 other sampan operators in the area - continues to be a thorn in the side of authorities who are trying to ensure people use only the Tsui Wah Ferry Service (TWFS) for transport. He faces the threat of arrest and fines but refuses to stop plying his trade, saying he is providing a much-needed service to hikers and the 400 people living near the pier who count on him and his colleagues for transport. They also argue that they cannot survive on their original source of income: fishing.
'I can't even catch enough to feed myself,' says To, explaining that the area has been overfished and blighted by pollution. The divorced To, who lives alone, adds that he has been a sampan operator since 1989, when he first supplemented his fast-disappearing income by taking passengers to and from Wong Shek Pier, a hub for islanders and others wanting to go into Sai Kung town. Even then he faced arrests and fines, though these were seldom enough to be a mere annoyance. But now the frequency is a burden, To says.
Since TWFS took over two ferry routes in 2000, plus a third the following year, To says he and his colleagues have suffered several forms of 'harassment'. There are police checks at the pier three to four times a day, To says, adding that officers moor their launches there at weekends and, armed with megaphones, exhort passengers to take only the ferry. There are sometimes 'high-speed' chases at sea when authorities spot a sampan carrying passengers, To says.
