The well-trodden gangplanks will soon be raised for the last time at the Star Ferry pier in Central. Slated for demolition to make way for an enormous shopping mall, the pier will close sometime in
the third quarter of this year, says the government. But although its task has been mandated, the demolition team faces considerable objections from citizens and conservation groups, not to
mention some of the men who have worked at the pier for decades.
Opposition is understandable when you consider the emblematic status the ferries, pier and clock tower have attained. When it comes to having earned one's stripes as a venerable part of Hong Kong's textured cultural history, Star Ferry probably sports the most. The elderly boats, heaving with camera-wielding tourists, are a sight intrinsic to Victoria Harbour. Every day, the 12 'Stars' loll and rock across the waters, dodging freight carriers and sampans to deliver their human cargo safely to the other side.
The service - which has operated since 1898 - has weathered 99 years of colonial rule, countless typhoons, the transition from coal to diesel, a washed-out handover and a murky blanket of smog. It has ferried innumerable passengers between the Island and Kowloon. It was on board a Star that Robert Lomax met the sultry Suzie Wong in Richard Mason's novel The World of Suzie Wong. The Star Ferry Co even managed to spark one of Hong Kong's most infamous riots, by announcing a fare rise of 5 HK cents back in 1966. The result was unprecedented. Hundreds of angry people took to the streets, resulting in the death of one and dozens of injuries and arrests. Since then, the company has kept fares low; there aren't many excursions you can take in Hong Kong for HK$2.20.
It has endured a lot in just under 50 years, but the pier is unlikely to survive the next few weeks. In the absence of a remarkable volte-face, the ferries that dock at the 48-year-old pier will soon begin tying up to a new structure - based on a design in use in 1912 - further west, closer to Two IFC and near the departure points of vessels heading to the outlying islands.
Conservation activists are spearheading a last-minute drive to save the pier. Project See, a local sustainable-development concern group, is at the helm of a petition launched last month to collect the names of people opposed to the demolition. Patsy Cheng Man-wah, the group's director, was scheduled to submit the signatures to the government by today, along with a manifesto and proposal outlining the importance of salvaging the building from the wrecking ball. She was hoping for 7,000 names with which to flood Legislative Council pigeon holes.