Riding History

^An old station notice at the Sheung Wan tram terminus.

Some holiday travellers skip Hong Kong for other cities in this part of the world because to them, Hong Kong is out and out a business city. It is simply not a place for leisure, they may think.

Back some years ago, for that same reason, I gave a friend of mine from Melbourne a spin around the countryside from the far eastern to the far western side of the New Territories beyond Kowloon. It took us some five hours including the stops at some destinations we made during the driving. At the end of the day, she admitted that it changed her perception about Hong Kong size-wise and history-wise.

Fact is, Hong Kong as the British bridgehead and bulwark, and its allies' for that matter, against the warring and later communist China, it has no lack in history.

One of the historic routes for travellers is the trail of Dr Sun Yat-san in Hong Kong, the man who initiated the revolution whereby the last imperial emperor in the history of China was ousted from the Forbidden City.

The tram is definitely an important part of the Hong Kong history.

A ride on the tram costs just over two Hong Kong dollars for an adult and less for children and elderly persons. The route of the tramway has changed little since its first operation in 1904. But then the tramway ran along the coastline of Hong Kong Island. So, riding on a tram gives you some idea about the old boundary of Hong Kong Island.

The first trams running were the single-deck trolley cars as shown in the photo on the left. This was a streetscape of the Des Voeux Road in Central, now the heart of the CBD of Hong Kong, in 1910. Later on, there were double-deck trams with a single-deck one on tow. The double-deck trams have been in use since then. The Hong Kong Tramways once planned to replace the old cars by air-conditioned models, which would kill the much-loved atmospheric aspect of the trams. The plan was silently shelved owing to the negative response from the public.

« Des Voeux Road (a thoroughfare of the CBD), Central 1910

The trams have been mostly free of accidents, except for running over a few careless jaywalkers (unlike the UK, jaywalking is a traffic offence in Hong Kong) and one case of derailment some ten years ago.

The most unfortunate accident was that a green tram driver got killed by a car running towards his tram when he jumped off from it out of panic at the sight of a small fire in the compartment, which was later easily put out by the passengers.

^A double-deck tram with a single-deck trolley car on tow behind

During the first years of the trams in operation, there was a rumour spreading around the local community. Because of it, the local folks flocked to the tram stops, went on whichever one pulling over through the entrance door and got down immediately through the exit door.

The rumour was that walking through the tram compartment would bring one good luck! As you can imagine, that brought troubles to the smooth running of the trams. The folks were forbidden to do the same soon afterwards.

^ Trams decorated to celebrate the end of WWI in 1919 ^Trams running along Des Voeux Road in Central, Hong Kong in 1950

^Des Voeux Road in 1962

^Des Voeux Road in the old days of an unknown year