You may not know what a junk boat is, but odds are high that you’ve seen one.

The junk boat – tall and wooden with its three bright-red sails glowing in the Victoria Harbor sunlight – is one of the most iconic visual symbols of Hong Kong.

These vessels are commonly depicted on postcards, retro travel posters, keychains, T-shirts, ceramics and even the logo of the city’s tourism board. But when it comes to finding a junk in present-day Hong Kong, you’ll have to look a lot harder.

Dukling is the last remaining Hong Kong junk boat available for public use. In her first life, Dukling was built in 1955 and was home for a seafaring local family.

She is 18 meters long and weighs 50 tons, offering locals and visitors alike a chance to experience Hong Kong’s man-made and natural beauty from the water.

It can be easy to forget that Hong Kong isn’t a single island – it’s an archipelago. While getting out on the water is a great way to feel the wind on your face on a hot day, it’s also a way to understand the shape and scope of this wildly varied city.

Like so many tourist attractions around the world, Dukling is at risk of closure due to low visitor numbers amid the pandemic. Currently, she is only available for private charters due to Hong Kong’s virus restrictions.

Before coronavirus, there were three sailings a day on weekends with a maximum of 40 passengers each. The Saturday itinerary made multiple stops in Kowloon including Tim Sha Tsui, while Sunday’s went from Central to North Point. The evening sailing was timed for watching the Symphony of Lights, a nightly show where skyscrapers along the harbor light up their windows in fun designs and colors just after dusk.

Bookings can be made online in English, Cantonese or Mandarin.

When the harbor was full of red sails

Libby Chan, Assistant Director (Curatorial and Collections) at the Hong Kong Maritime Museum, explains that many of the early residents of Hong Kong came from two groups – those who lived their lives on land (Hakka) and those who lived their lives at sea (Tanka).

As recently as the 1970s, many Hong Kongers lived, worked, ate and slept on board these wooden boats, periodically pulling into typhoon shelters or docks along the city shoreline to sell their wares and stock up on supplies. Beginning in the 1970s, many locals traded in their boat homes for apartments in Hong Kong’s now-famous tall housing estate blocks, giving up their lives at sea for more reliably paid work in factories or offices.