Old History of Ferry

According to my teacher who teach at History and Culture of Hong Kong, ferry was called ‘煱輪船’ in the past.

In the past, the foreigners trained the people in Macau and let them to do missionary work in Japan. However, foreigners knew that river bed was quite shallow. On the other hand, the river bed in Hong Kong is deeper than Macau. Then, the foreigners tried to develop Hong Kong. In 1888, Hong Kong had the first Ferry called Star Ferry which was estsblished by Dorabujee Naorojee Mithaiwala.

But why '天星小輪' is called ‘小輪’？

It is becuase the '煱輪' of Star Ferry is very small. That's why Star Ferry is called 天星小輪.