Queen's Pier (Nov 11)

Saturday night (Nov. 11) we were headed to Kowloon for dinner (Kowloon is across Victoria Harbor from where we live on HK Island). We like to take the ferry when crossing harbor as it is scenic and fun & only costs about 25cents. We took a taxi to the ferry pier at Central (Queen's Pier). There were tons of people at the pier most with cameras & they were taking pictures like crazy. There were string strung all over the pier station with little notes attached to them. There was a band playing & TV stations there. We had no idea what we had gotten into. People were having their photos taken all over the pier, it was really strange. The line to get tickets was very long (fortunately we have octopus cards which allow us to use a quicker line).

I finally remembered reading something about the pier closing & being torn down so they could reclaim the area for a building. I guess it's been there since the early 1900's so it's a bit of a landmark & people were getting in their last rides from that pier. On our way home the taxi driver explained that indeed Saturday was the last day the pier would be used & it was to be torn down. He said people were very angry about it. He wasn't very happy about it himself. He said even though he is Chinese, he thinks the Chinese government is stupid. They tear down historic places that people love & tourists come to HK to see so they can put up ugly buildings that will make someone lots of money. He said the new pier is farther from the main road & the taxi area is very small and not well designed.

It was kind of interesting to be a part of an historic event in HK history without even planning it.