Tuen Mun Ferry Pier Stop

Tuen Mun Ferry Pier Stop (Chinese: 屯門碼頭站) is an MTR Light Rail terminus located at ground level inside Pierhead Garden, Tuen Mun Ferry Pier, Wu Chui Road in Tuen Mun, Tuen Mun District. It began service on September 18, 1988, and belongs to Zone 1. It serves Tuen Mun Ferry Pier and nearby residential buildings.

The terminus has seven platforms. Platform 2 is used for route 507, platform 3 for routes 615 and 615P, platform 4 for route 610, and platform 5 for routes 614 and 614P. Platforms 1 and 6 are reserved for emergency purposes, while Platform 7 is for alighting only. It also has a customer service centre and a bus terminus.

This stop has the largest number of terminating lines in the Light Rail system (six).

History

The stop was opened to the public on September 18, 1988, as Ferry Pier Stop (屯門碼頭站). On the previous day, the Light Rail Transit system was declared open by Anne, Princess Royal, at this stop; the commemorative plaque she unveiled still remains intact. The stop was renamed Ferry Pier Terminus (屯門碼頭總站) later.

Ko Chang District

Ko Chang (Thai: เกาะช้าง, pronounced [kɔ̀ʔ tɕʰáːŋ], also Koh Chang) is an amphoe (district) in Trat Province, Thailand. It is on the Gulf of Thailand's eastern seaboard, 310 km from Bangkok, near the border with Cambodia.

It is the country's third largest island, after Phuket and Ko Samui, and the largest island in the Mu Ko Chang National Park archipelago.

The name means "Elephant Island", and comes from its elephant-shaped headland. Despite the presence of elephants on the island, they are not indigenous. At present, there are nine villages on the island.

History

Prior to World War II, Ko Chang was little known. During this period, the few families there made a living growing coconuts and fruit.

During World War II, when Thailand was occupied by Japanese forces, Ko Chang was the scene of the 1941 Battle of Ko Chang between the Royal Thai Navy and a Vichy French naval squadron, in which the French won a decisive victory.

Geography

Ko Chang is part of an archipelago of 51 islands, and is approximately 30 km long by 14 km, wide with a total area of 217 km². It is part of the Mu Ko Chang National Park, which covers an area of 650 km², of which 70% is offshore.

Hong Kong

Hong Kong (香港; "Fragrant Harbour"), officially Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China, is an autonomous territory on the southern coast of China at the Pearl River Estuary and the South China Sea. Hong Kong is known for its skyline and deep natural harbour. It has a land area of 1104 km² and shares its northern border with Guangdong Province of Mainland China. With around 7.2 million inhabitants of various nationalities, Hong Kong is one of the world's most densely populated metropolises.

After the First Opium War (1839–42), Hong Kong became a British colony with the perpetual cession of Hong Kong Island, followed by Kowloon Peninsula in 1860 and a 99-year lease of the New Territories from 1898. Hong Kong remained under British control for about a century until the Second World War, when Japan occupied the colony from December 1941 to August 1945. After the Surrender of Japan, the British resumed control. In the 1980s, negotiations between the United Kingdom and the China resulted in the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration, which provided for the transfer of sovereignty of Hong Kong on 30 June 1997. The territory became a special administrative region of China with a high degree of autonomy on 1 July 1997 under the principle of one country, two systems. Disputes over the perceived misapplication of this principle have contributed to popular protests, including the 2014 Umbrella Revolution.

Pier

A pier is a raised structure typically supported by well-spaced piles or pillars. Bridges, buildings, and walkways may all be supported by piers. Their open structure allows tides and currents to flow relatively unhindered, whereas the more solid foundations of a quay or the closely spaced piles of a wharf can act as a breakwater, and are consequently more liable to silting. Piers can range in size and complexity from a simple lightweight wooden structure to major structures extended over 1600 metres. In American English, pier may be synonymous with dock.

Piers have been built for several purposes, and because these different purposes have distinct regional variances, the term pier tends to have different nuances of meaning in different parts of the world. Thus in North America and Australia, where many ports were, until recently, built on the multiple pier model, the term tends to imply a current or former cargo-handling facility. In Europe in contrast, where ports more often use basins and river-side quays than piers, the term is principally associated with the image of a Victorian cast iron pleasure pier. However, the earliest piers pre-date the Victorian age.

Ferry

A ferry (or ferryboat) is a boat or ship (a merchant vessel) used to carry (or ferry) primarily passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo as well, across a body of water. Most ferries operate on regular, frequent, return services. A passenger ferry with many stops, such as in Venice, Italy, is sometimes called a water bus or water taxi.

Ferries form a part of the public transport systems of many waterside cities and islands, allowing direct transit between points at a capital cost much lower than bridges or tunnels. However, ship connections of much larger distances (such as over long distances in water bodies like the Mediterranean Sea) may also be called ferry services, especially if they carry vehicles.

History

In ancient times

The profession of the ferryman is embodied in Greek mythology in Charon, the boatman who transported souls across the River Styx to the Underworld.

Speculation that a pair of oxen propelled a ship having a water wheel can be found in 4th century Roman literature "Anonymus De Rebus Bellicis". Though impractical, there is no reason why it could not work and such a ferry, modified by using horses, was used in Lake Champlain in 19th-century America. See "When Horses Walked on Water: Horse-Powered Ferries in Nineteenth-Century America" (Smithsonian Institution Press; Kevin Crisman, co-authored with Arthur Cohn, Executive Director of the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum). See Experiment (horse powered boat).