Chapter 30 How old is the "Star Ferry" story?

How many times, I have lost count, I have described such a Hong Kong story to my friends in the Mainland. The "master" of the story is not a person, but a row of wooden chairs that have been around for a long time, in Victoria Harbour, on the water of Victoria Harbour. On the "Star Ferry" that travels to and from people—— Many years ago, I hadn’t come to Hong Kong to work. I remember the first time I went to Hong Kong to visit my husband. One Sunday, he said he would take me to Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon. Take pictures, look at Nathan Road, and then stroll around "Harbour City".

I know that from Hong Kong Island to Kowloon, no matter how you go, you have to cross the sea, and you have to cross the famous Victoria Harbour. "Victoria Harbor" is the pride of Hong Kong people and the soul of the city. When mainlanders arrive in Hong Kong, no one will give up taking a photo on the north shore of the "Victoria Harbour", leaning against the embankment and separated by the sea, with the beautiful panorama of Hong Kong Island in the background. But how?My husband asked me: "Do you prefer to take the subway, bus or ferry?" If you want to take the subway, the fare is 10 yuan; if you take the bus, the fare is 8 yuan and 9 yuan; but if you choose to take a boat, you have to go to the sea, and each ticket is 2 yuan 2, which is cheap and can enjoy the scenery of the Victoria Harbour.

Of course I don't want to take the subway or bus, but I must take the "cheap" and "scenic" ferry.In this way, we arrived at the Wanchai pier and boarded the "Star Ferry" which set sail at regular intervals. The "Star Ferry" in Hong Kong should be said to be a means of sea transportation that is older than the "jingle car". It started sailing in Victoria Harbor in 1888.The original "Star Ferry" consisted of only 4 ships, single-deck, coal-burning, roaring motors, and whirring fans.Today, after more than a hundred years, the appearance of the "Star Ferry" has not changed much. It still retains wooden seats, plastic canopies, and worn floors. It is still not luxurious and grand.But this kind of "century-old ship" still has about 70,000 passengers in Hong Kong every day. People don't dislike its simplicity or complain that it doesn't have air-conditioning, but they like this kind of tool with a sense of history.

The sky in Hong Kong was so blue on the day my husband and I took the boat! The entire Victoria Harbor is like a huge piece of green silk, swaying with the wind. When I got on the boat, I found that there were no sofas on the "Star Ferry". There were rows of yellow and white wooden chairs, which were very old. It could be seen that they had been repainted many times.Fortunately, the voyage is not long, only seven or eight minutes, sitting on a wooden chair, facing the sea breeze, is a natural and comfortable feeling that is hard to find. However, just when my husband and I had a "scenery" in Kowloon for a day, we turned around at dusk to return to Hong Kong Island and boarded the boat again. The problem came. Back to the bow, do you understand what it means?Reverse seat.

"Traveling with the wrong seat on the boat will make you dizzy," I just started to make a statement, but before I could finish speaking, the gentleman had a secretive expression on his face, and while saying "don't worry", he used his hands skillfully to pull a piece of paper. The backrests of the row of seats, there was only a slap, and the backrests of the row of seats happily ran from one side to the other, and then the husband couldn't help being proud: "Look, isn't this right? No It will make you dizzy." Before the words finished, the sound of rattling on the boat was already heard, and in the blink of an eye, all the "anti-seats" on the boat were turned into "right seats" - I was in It’s true in the sea, you can’t use the emotional end anymore, it’s the emotional end, but this “end” weighs a thousand catties: no, it’s really coming!Just pull it like this?Such a simple mechanism?Such an ingenious design?How did it come up with it?Why do Hong Kong people have so many ghosts?

The "Star Ferry" in Hong Kong is so simple that it gives people another kind of beauty, which supports history and inspires today. Rows of old wooden chairs are just embellished with a little love, and the surprise and exclamation it brings to people will not fade for a hundred years!