Diminishing returns

The sampan used to be a popular mode of water transport in '50s Hong Kong. Hundreds of thousands of these boats sailed in and out of Aberdeen Harbour - which was more like a floating village and a home to a large section of the city's Tanka community.

Lisa Lim, associate professor at the School of Education at Curtin University in Perth, says that the Tanka people in charge of Hong Kong's sampans have been around "since prehistoric times, traditionally managing the commerce of the seas, and living in small colonies of boats in Aberdeen, Tai O and later in the city's typhoon shelters".

"About 200,000 Tanka boats were anchored in Hong Kong in the mid-20th century," Lim adds.

As the number of sampans moored on Hong Kong's waterfront keeps shrinking, the obvious way of preserving and promoting such heritage seems to be to invite tourists to take rides on them. Lim says, "Hong Kong has already made some headway" in that direction, by offering "sampan tours to fishing villages and traditional houseboats".