Hong Kong (series) - Rod Taylor (1960) - Jordan Road Vehicular Ferry, Kowloon

Here's one from Love, Honor and Perish that had me scratching my head for a while because I couldn't figure out where it could be. In the show this is supposed to be a ferry from Hong Kong to Macau but in reality is just one of the old vehicular ferries that ran between Kowloon and Hong Kong Island in pre-Cross Harbour Tunnel days. However, there is a problem because the ridge line at the back doesn't really match up with anywhere in Hong Kong...

...until you reverse the images and then the familiar Kowloon ridges of Beacon Hill and Lion Rock are suddenly revealed. So we are obviously looking at a boat just departing the Jordan Road ferry pier. This was filmed in the days before the Ferry Point Estate was constructed and there was a clear view to the mountains.

Heisser Hafen Hongkong - Horst Frank (1962) - Jordan Road Ferry, Yau Ma Tei

This one is a bit more interesting compared to the usual Jordan Road ferry pier because of the red painted sign that appears in the background.

I might be wrong but this looks to me like an advert for the yet-to-be-built Ferry Point estate, or at least the first buildings on that estate that were erected. The smaller writing on the left in the lowest pictures says 建築地盤 (gin juk dei pun) which basically means "construction ground". But if you look at the larger characters on the left I believe they say 文英樓 (man ying lau) i.e. Man Ying Building which is the name of one of the blocks within the estate. Along with the neighbouring Man Yuen Building these two were the first in the estate to be built and were open by 1964 - two years after this film was made. The picture on the wall is the artists impression of how the estate would look after completion. It's a pity we can't see it in higher resolution.

So it looks like the movie caught the area just prior to the building work being started for the Ferry Point Estate.

Five Golden Dragons - Bob Cummings (1967) - HYF Ferries

Sadly, by the time I eventually made my first visit to HK in 1995, the vehicular ferries were already on their way out and, in fact, the previously mentioned ferry pier on Jordan Road was demolished the following year. So, I never got to experience a cross harbour trip on one. It's a bit of a shame really. Of course there is still a vehicular service from Kwun Tong Pier for dangerous goods banned from the cross-harbour tunnels, but I don't think that particular service is open to the general public.

Anyway, courtesy of Five Golden Dragons we catch a glimpse of several types of ferry. It looks - from the earlier screen shots showing the small elevated ramp allowing cars to board and alight on the upper deck of the ferry - as though double-decked ferries (cars on two levels) were already in use by the late 60's. I'm not sure when they were introduced but an earlier screen shot of Jordan Road ferry in Soldier of Fortune - filmed twelve years earlier in 1955 - shows an older version of the pier that just allowed for a single deck of vehicles. So it looks as though the modifications allowing vehicles on both decks happened sometime within that time frame, but I could just be making false assumptions.

Here is the previously used shot showing the Ferry Point Estate. Look carefully at the ferry pier and you can see the white line of the upper deck ramp (in front of the building scaffolding) as well as what appears to be a double-decked ferry at tied up at the pier.

This isn't the ferry our character uses though. The one he gets into with his taxi is a single deck version - that is...a single deck for vehicles and an upper deck for passengers. The HYF stands for Hong Kong Yam Ma Tei Ferry Company. I guess this might mean the single vehicle deck ferry was of an older vintage.

As we cross the harbour we see another type of ferry, this time only a non-vehicular type passenger ferry. I can't make out the name exactly but it looks to me as though the ferry below is the Man Tai (民泰) which was a double decked passenger ferry in operation between 1956 and 1988. I've posted this link before but it is worth repeating because of the wealth of information regarding all the HYF ferries.

We can also end this post with a couple of screen grabs taken inside the ferry itself. Maybe it will trigger some nostalgia from someone out there who can share some memories.

Five Golden Dragons - Bob Cummings (1967) - Jordan Road Vehicular Ferry, Kowloon

Lots of nice nostalgic footage of the old vehicular ferry terminal and surrounding area courtesy of this film as we follow a car from Kowloon side to Hong Kong.

This large open area (above) in front of the ferry terminal was also used as a bus terminus and has remained largely undeveloped even now. It now has the extension of Jordan Road running across it into West Kowloon and there is now a light bus terminus in front of the Ferry Point Estate. You can just see the corner of the Man Wah Building top left.

Entrance ramp for vehicles

The bottom picture helps us to see when this film was made because it shows one of the buildings of the Ferry Point Estate under construction. The one under construction is the Man King Building - completed in 1967. The one behind it is the Man Fai Building completed in 1966. Given that they have only just started building the Man King building and the time it takes to build these things it would seem likely that this film was made either late '66 or early '67 (though I reckon 66 more likely).

Soldier of Fortune - Clark Gable (1955) - Vehicular Ferry Pier, Yau Ma Tei

Also known as Jordan Road Ferry Pier because it was located at the westernmost end of Jordan Road in Yau Ma Tei - when it was still part of the waterfront (obviously...).

Of course, the ferry pier became a victim of the mass reclamation and was demolished in 1996. The West Kowloon reclamation has put paid to the aforementioned waterfront. The current location seen above is now occupied in part by Austin Station.

Soldier of Fortune was filmed in 1955, a few years before the Ferry Point Estate was constructed just to the immediate north of the ferry pier.