Central Pier No.6

Function & Network Role

Central Pier No. 6 is the two-route terminal serving Mui Wo, on the eastern coast of Lantau Island, and Peng Chau, one of the smaller outlying islands northeast of Lantau. The two routes run under different operators from the same pier building: Sun Ferry (the renamed successor to New World First Ferry) operates the Central–Mui Wo service, offering both ordinary and fast-ferry classes on a roughly 35-to-55-minute crossing depending on vessel type, while Hong Kong & Kowloon Ferry (HKKF) runs the separate Central–Peng Chau route, with some sailings continuing on to Hei Ling Chau. A handful of early-morning Sun Ferry departures run the combined Mui Wo–Peng Chau–Central sequence, but the two services otherwise operate on independent timetables and should not be assumed interchangeable. Mui Wo also functions as Lantau’s principal bus interchange, so the pier indirectly feeds bus connections to Tai O, Ngong Ping, and other Lantau destinations that have no direct ferry service of their own.

Architecture & Design

Pier 6 follows the same modular template used across the rebuilt Central Ferry Piers: a steel-roofed, open-sided shed on a reinforced concrete deck, split internally into two boarding zones — a western berth handling the higher-volume Mui Wo service and an eastern berth for the smaller Peng Chau route. The open-air mezzanine levels give sightlines onto the harbour shipping lanes on either side, and covered walkways connect the pier directly into the wider Central Ferry Piers promenade and, from there, to the elevated pedestrian network reaching Hong Kong Station and Central Station.

History & Reclamation

The current pier dates to the Central Reclamation Phase III and Central Ferry Piers Improvement Project of the early-to-mid 2000s, which rebuilt the entire pier complex further out into Victoria Harbour and renumbered the berths in the process. Before this relocation, outlying-island ferry services — including the Star Ferry, which shared a more compact stretch of shoreline with the island ferries in the early-to-mid 20th century — operated from piers considerably closer to the pre-reclamation coastline, nearer today’s Des Voeux Road. The Mui Wo route’s operating history runs through several corporate changes: it was run for decades by New World First Ferry before that company’s 2020 sale to the mainland-owned Chu Kong Shipping group and subsequent rebrand as Sun Ferry.

Economic Context & Local Taste

Mui Wo functions as Lantau’s secondary town center, and its ferry-and-bus interchange status makes Pier 6 an economic funnel for the whole southern half of the island, including Tai O’s dried-seafood trade, Ngong Ping’s tourism economy around the Big Buddha, and Lantau’s beach communities at Pui O and Cheung Sha. Peng Chau, by contrast, is a small, largely car-free residential island of narrow lanes and low-rise housing whose economy leans on weekend day-trippers and a modest fishing and small-manufacturing history — the island once hosted a lime kiln and a match factory, both long closed, whose remnants are minor local landmarks rather than working industry today. At the pier itself, food options run to the standard transit fare: steamed dim sum, curry fish balls, and Hong Kong–style milk tea from quick-service stalls, patronized heavily by early-morning commuters and weekend hikers heading for Lantau’s trail network.

Lore & Local Character

Mui Wo’s English name, Silvermine Bay, comes directly from a real 19th-century industrial venture: between 1886 and 1896, Hong Kong entrepreneur Ho A Mei operated a silver-lead mine in the hills behind the settlement, extracting galena ore that was carried by aerial ropeway to a smelting works near the shore. The mine closed within a decade, but the English place name outlasted the industry itself and still appears on maps and bus destination boards alongside the Chinese name. Peng Chau carries its own layered industrial past — beyond the lime-kiln and match-factory era, the island’s disused leather factory has more recently been converted into artist studios and community workshop space, part of a broader pattern across Hong Kong’s smaller outlying islands of former manufacturing sites being repurposed as the industries that built them wound down through the mid-to-late 20th century.

Practical Navigation

The pier is reached on foot from either Hong Kong Station (Airport Express and Tung Chung Line) or Central Station (Island Line and Tsuen Wan Line) via the covered elevated walkway serving the whole Central Ferry Piers precinct, a walk of roughly 10 to 15 minutes. The Central Ferry Piers Bus Terminus sits immediately adjacent for onward bus connections. Fares are collected via Octopus card or QR code at separate turnstiles for each route; Sun Ferry’s Mui Wo sailings run at intervals of roughly 30 to 60 minutes depending on time of day and vessel class, while HKKF’s Peng Chau service runs less frequently, with wider gaps between sailings on weekdays than on weekends when day-trip demand rises. Travelers connecting onward to Tai O or Ngong Ping should confirm bus timetables from Mui Wo in advance, since the ferry and connecting bus schedules are not formally coordinated. Cyclists frequently use the Mui Wo route as well, since Sun Ferry vessels permit bicycles on board for a supplementary fare, and the flat coastal road network around Mui Wo and Pui O is a popular weekend cycling loop reached almost exclusively through this pier.