The motor car and its appetite for land has, at the expense of Victoria Harbour, done for the old Star Ferry pier. But amid all the sentiment for an iconic landmark and its clock tower, the plight of the rickshaw men who plied their slim trade outside the old pier was largely forgotten. The last four rickshaws in Hong Kong have been left languishing, looking for buyers.
A spokesman for the elderly owners says business has dropped from HK$100 a day from tourists wanting their pictures taken with the rickshaws at the old pier to just HK$20-HK$30 a day at the new pier. He anticipates that with the new overhead walkway to the Star Ferry, business will disappear. Rickshaws, too, were done for long ago as a form of transport by the motor vehicle. Motorised transport has, however, brought its own problems - pollution and alienation of the environment we have to put up with today to maintain the pace of modern life.
Even so, no one would suggest a revival of the rickshaw as a form of pollution-free transport. When the odd tourist has taken a ride, the sight has looked uncomfortably out of place.
But are we really ready to say goodbye to rickshaws? They could be out of sight and out of mind as we walk for an extra 10 minutes to the new Star Ferry pier. But they are, after all, part of the rich fabric of Hong Kong's heritage. There was a time when it did not matter who you were and who you knew, if you wanted to get somewhere it was either walk or hail a rickshaw. That was so long ago that few people these days know the history of the rickshaw. It was imported from Japan to Hong Kong in 1874 and spread to China, India and most large cities of Southeast Asia, where pulling a rickshaw was more often than not an immigrant's first job.
By the 1920s, they peaked at more than 3,000 in Hong Kong before motor vehicles and public transport began taking their customers. Their popularity waned sharply after the second world war. The mainland got rid of them after the communist takeover in 1949 and Hong Kong has not issued a new rickshaw licence since 1975.
Before long, the last stand of the four remaining old owners will be covered by roads and a groundscraper. But in return for giving up yet more of our harbour to reclamation, we have also been promised people-friendly waterside promenades.
