Shanghai Ferry

The Shanghai Ferry (Chinese: 上海市轮渡, abbr. 市轮渡) is a system of ferry routes across the Huangpu River in Shanghai. The ferry service started on January 5, 1911 by the municipal authorities in Pudong. Before the 1970s, the ferry service was the only way to cross the Huangpu River. In the 1980s, the Shanghai Ferry became one of the busiest ferry services in the world. In the 1990s, as bridges and tunnels across the Huangpu river were built, the ferry service saw a sharp drop in ridership. The Shanghai Ferry currently consists of 18 ferry lines and is operated by the state-owned Shanghai Ferry Company.

Before the Shanghai ferry service was created, private sampan ferries were the main way to cross the Huangpu River. Most sampan ferries could only carry around 30-50 passengers and a one-way trip across the river would take around 30 minutes. As the city grew, the demand for cross-river traffic increased rapidly. In addition, increasing number of large vessels and the strong currents on the river posed extra dangers for traditional sampan ferries. Accidents involving sampan ferries were on the rise.

In 1909, municipal authorities in Pudong dredged several tributaries of the Huangpu River. To help the workers commute across the river, the Pudong authorities rent a steamboat to ferry workers between the Tongren Pier (near the Bund at East Beijing Road) and Donggou in Pudong. Since the number of workers taking the ferry was far below the ferry's capacity, the authorities would also admit other passengers along the way, charging a small fee to subsidise the operation costs. As the steamboat was much safer and faster than other means to cross the river such as sampan ferries, taking the steamboat became the preferred way for people to cross the river. Meanwhile, the authorities realised that the ferry revenues can cover the renting cost. The authorities therefore decided to make its steamboat ferry service permanent.

On January 15, 1911, the Pudong municipal authorities launched a ferry line between Tongren Pier and Donggou. In 1917, another ferry line linking Tongren Pier to Xidu was launched. Two years later, the authorities launched a ferry line between Tongren Pier and Xigou (Qingningsi). Around the same time, private ferry companies also started to launch commercial ferry lines.

In 1927, the ownership of the Pudong ferry service was transferred to the newly established Shanghai Special Municipality. By 1935, the ferry service operated 6 lines across the Huangpu river with 9 steel floating docks, 6 wooden docks, 12 ferry boats, and 5026 seats. The annual ridership reached 12.98 million. Before the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937, the Shanghai Ferry, consisting of mainly government-run ferry lines as well as private ferry lines, became the main way to cross the Huangpu River.。

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