The boat city here at Cheung Chau is shrinking as families find other ways to make their living. In Aberdeen, on the other side of Hong Kong island, former junk dwellers are being encouraged to leave their boats to move to government built high rises which line the harbor. Fewer and fewer families are making their living off the sea. If anything goes wrong, they are entirely responsible for repairs and that can get expensive. Brand new, the junks cost about a million dollars Hong Kong, or more than a quarter of a million U.S. dollars.
Fewer fishermen can afford the expense of the wooden vessels.
Boatbuilders specializing in junk making are finding more people now want to use their vessels for pleasure craft. Janice McDonald, CNN Newsroom, Aberdeen Harbor.