Hong Kong’s sampan industry: a sunset trade that may sink under development plans at Aberdeen Harbour
- Modern marine transport has overtaken traditional vessel’s popularity, which once gave rise to bustling ‘floating village’ where boat dwellers lived
- Typhoon destruction and slim profits mean shipyards no longer prioritise vessel type, which is part of city’s history but rarely gets deserved attention
Looking down from the balcony over his cluttered shipyard in Aberdeen Harbour, 84-year-old shipwright Ngai Yau-chuen sighs at the forlorn sight of a battered sampan secured on a platform and waiting to be repaired.
The sampan – a small, traditional Chinese wooden boat – which has braved many vicious storms, has rotting planks and paint peeling off its hull. The damage will take four workers up to a week to fix, with the service bringing in only a meagre profit, Ngai says.
Sampans used to be a popular form of water transport in Hong Kong, especially in the 1950s when Aberdeen Harbour was packed with rows of such vessels, Ngai recalls. Sampans can be 4½ to seven metres in length and propelled by poles, oars or fitted with motors. On average, they can carry about 10 people.
But the traditional boat has lost its appeal, replaced by faster, more modern transport such as ferries and yachts.
“Nobody builds sampans any more. The existing ones are all we have left. If we lose one, it’s gone forever,” he says.
