在南海渡船上的2个月
上周六,我从港岛乘渡船前往长洲看望老友,中午还和他一起吃了顿海鲜。
以前我在博客里曾经交待,多年前初到香港时我曾在长洲落脚,但如今已有很多年没再去过。
从位于港岛中环国际金融中心附近的码头刚登上渡船,许多回忆便扑面而来。渡船上的气氛、景象、声响,还有熙熙攘攘的港口上空弥漫着的咸味都令我感到如此亲切,因为我过去可是这条航线上十多年的老乘客呢。
我曾经粗略地算过,在长洲居住的那几年,我花在这条航线上的时间加起来大概得有两个多月。能在渡船上花这么长时间,那还真不算短。
那时候,这条航线单程就需要一小时。而现在,因为船速加快,只需30分钟足矣。
在香港这个交通便捷的弹丸之地,一个小时的路程就算很长了,特别是在那个年代。然而,由于可以利用这段时间读书、放松、思考、写作、和朋友聊天,还可以来上一杯香茶或咖啡,这一小时倒也过得不失雅致。再加上头顶掠过的海鸥和鸢鸟、身旁驶过的大小形状各异的船只,都为迎接一天的工作营造了良好心境。这样的旅程实在是轻松惬意,尤其和被堵车堵在路上相比要好得多。
那时,来自中国内陆的渔船比比皆是,因为还是老式木帆船(通常挂着红帆),所以一眼就能认得出来。直到现在,很多来自香港附近内陆港口的小船还没有进入柴油机时代。
在上世纪七十年代末,经常可以看到许多挤满越南难民的小木船在海上飘摇,要么朝着香港方向慢慢挪动,要么已遭香港水警拖曳。
那时候商船种类繁多,从近海的小型汽船、往来珠三角的油气轮,到大型集装箱船应有尽有。但这些船无论体积还是速度都与现在的巨型集装箱船不可同日而语。
当时常见的还有港澳间的渡船和夜间行驶的慢船。由波音公司制造、率先在夏威夷投入使用的高速喷射飞翼船在那时还是个稀罕物。
偶尔,我们也能在珠江口水域看到成群的小海豚,身上还粉嘟嘟的,如今它们已是濒危保护动物了。
搭渡船不仅能放松心情,还是一个绝佳的窗口,透过它可以看到中国南方在改革开放前夕发生的历史变迁,以及那些为迎接即将到来的巨变所作的准备。
迄今为止,长洲岛作为渔港的历史已经超过一个世纪。早在二十世纪初,长洲的捕捞船队就已接近1,000支,但到七十年代中却仅余下个零头。当时还在作业的船只大部分都是大型拖网船,其设计和装备都是按前往南海多鱼区进行一个月以上的长途捕捞作业而配置的。香港近海的渔业资源已被捕捞殆尽。
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Two Months on a Ferry Boat in the South China Sea
On a recent Saturday morning I took a ferry from Hong Kong to Cheung Chau Island to visit old friends and have a seafood lunch together.
As I wrote in an earlier post, I lived in Cheung Chau many years ago after I first came to Hong Kong. It had been a few years since I'd been back for a visit.
As I boarded the ferry boat in Hong Kong's Central District near the IFC center, I was hit by a flood of memories. The atmosphere aboard the ferry and the sights, sounds, and salty smell of the bustling harbor were all deeply familiar, because I had been a regular commuter on this line for more than ten years.
I once did a rough calculation of the total amount of time I had spent on that route over the years I lived on the island, and it came to something like 2 months. That's a long time to spend on a ferry boat.
The one-way trip in those days took one hour. Now they have faster ferries as well, which take only 30 minutes.
In super convenient, compact Hong Kong, a one-hour commute was considered quite long, especially in those days. There is something civilized, however, about having an hour to read, relax, think, write, talk with friends, and drink a cup of coffee or tea. Meanwhile, terns and brahminy kites fly overhead, and all sizes and shapes of shipping vessels pass by, putting you in a good frame. of mind for the day of work which awaits you. It is a very relaxing form. of commute, especially compared to sitting in a traffic jam.
Fishing junks from China were common sights and immediately noticeable because they were still older-style. teak vessels under (often red-colored) sail. Many of the smaller junks from mainland ports near Hong Kong has not yet entered the diesel engine age.
In the late 1970s, it was not unusual to see rickety little wooden boats packed with Vietnamese refugees, either making their way slowly towards Hong Kong harbor, or already under tow by the Hong Kong Marine Police.
There was a huge variety of commercial shipping vessels, ranging from small coastal steamers and tankers plying the Pearl River Delta area to large container ships, although they pale by comparison to the size and speed of today's giant container vessels.
The HK-Macau ferries were a common sight, including the slow overnight ferry. High-speed jetfoils, produced by Boeing and initially deployed in the Hawaiian islands, were a brand new phenomenon in those days.
Occasionally we would see pods of the small pink dolphins which inhabit the Pearl River estuary area, now an endangered and protected species.
So the ferry ride was not only relaxing, but a kind of window into the historic changes which were taking place in South China in the pre-Open Door and Reform. era, setting the stage for even bigger changes to come.
Cheung Chau has been a fishing port for more than a century. Early in the 20th century its fishing fleet numbered nearly 1,000 boats. By the mid-1970s the fleet was only a fraction of that size, and most of the remaining working fishing boats were large trawlers designed and equipped for long distance fishing trips of one month's duration or more, to more productive fishing grounds in Southeast Asia. Hong Kong's inshore waters had been largely fished out.
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