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Tuen Mun New Town (formerly Castle Peak New Town), commonly referred to simply as Tuen Mun, is a satellite town of Hong Kong. It is one of the
new towns A planned community, planned city, planned town, or planned settlement is any community that was carefully planned from its inception and is typically constructed on previously undeveloped land. This contrasts with settlements that evolve ...
that were developed by the
Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a List of cities in China, city and Special administrative regions of China, special ...
Government in the
New Territories The New Territories is one of the three main regions of Hong Kong, alongside Hong Kong Island and the Kowloon Peninsula. It makes up 86.2% of Hong Kong's territory, and contains around half of the population of Hong Kong. Historically, it ...
from the 1960s. It was built around the existing rural local centre of
Tuen Mun Tuen Mun or Castle Peak is an area near the mouth of Tuen Mun River and Castle Peak Bay in the New Territories, Hong Kong. It was one of the earliest settlements in what is now Hong Kong and can be dated to the Neolithic period. In the more ...
( Castle Peak). The new town covers most of the urban area of
Tuen Mun District Tuen Mun District is one of the 18 administrative districts of Hong Kong. It is the westernmost continental district of Hong Kong. It had a population of 487,546 in 2011. Part of the district is the Tuen Mun New Town (or simply Tuen Mun), ...
.


History

The initial plan for Tuen Mun New Town can be traced to a report by consulting firm Scott Wilson Kirkpatrick & Partners in 1959. At that time the project was known as Castle Peak. The history of settlement in
Tuen Mun Tuen Mun or Castle Peak is an area near the mouth of Tuen Mun River and Castle Peak Bay in the New Territories, Hong Kong. It was one of the earliest settlements in what is now Hong Kong and can be dated to the Neolithic period. In the more ...
can be traced back 6,000 years. The area was part of a larger region which was leased from the
Qing Empire The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu people, Manchu-led Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin (1616–1636), La ...
to the
British Empire The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts e ...
in 1898 for 99 years as part of the
Convention for the Extension of Hong Kong Territory The Convention between the United Kingdom and China, Respecting an Extension of Hong Kong Territory, commonly known as the Convention for the Extension of Hong Kong Territory or the Second Convention of Peking, was a lease signed between Qing C ...
. The colonial government, faced with overcrowding resulting from large numbers of immigrants from China as well as natural increase, embarked on various new towns projects to create large housing developments to house the rapidly growing population. Construction of the new town started in 1966. In the next year, the government
reclaiming In linguistics, reappropriation, reclamation, or resignification is the cultural process by which a group reclaims words or artifacts that were previously used in a way disparaging of that group. It is a specific form of a semantic change (i. ...
of land near an area known as " Tuen Mun San Hui" (). San Hui was considered as a market township of the area at that time, which was a market centre for the surrounding area. Further reclamation was carried out in Castle Peak Bay, among others, until the late 1960s. The government also levelled the hillside area to obtain land for the town during that period. J. M. Wigglesworth, a senior planning officer of the government, has stated that choosing coastal sites is partially due to land tenure rights in the New Territories. Thus the government preferred land reclamation. In 1973, the new town project was renamed Tuen Mun New Town. Rumour has it that the town was renamed because Castle Peak was more famous for a
psychiatric hospital Psychiatric hospitals, also known as mental health hospitals, behavioral health hospitals, are hospitals or wards specializing in the treatment of severe mental disorders, such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, eating disorders, dissociat ...
which was named after the area. The major construction works, such as land reclamation, underground drainage, electricity infrastructure, and roads were completed in 1974. However, the last sale of the land lease of the new town by the government won't carried out until 2019. The first public housing estate of the new town was
San Fat Estate San Fat Estate () was the first public housing estate in Tuen Mun, New Territories, Hong Kong, located on reclaimed land near the Tuen Mun River, at the junction of Pui To Road and Tuen Mun Heung Sze Wui Road. It consisted of four residential bloc ...
. It was completed in 1971.


Geography

Tuen Mun New Town, as of 1971, was by road and by sea from Kowloon. There was little chance of flood at that time. The new town is situation in the valley between Castle Peak and Tai Lam hill (should be Kau Keng Shan). Before the development, it was a major fishing port with a land-based population of 22,500 people. Studies suggested that the area should be developed into a satellite city of 1 million population. As of 2011 census, whole Tuen Mun District, which covers Tuen Mun New Town and other urban and rural areas, had a population of 487,546 people.


Design

The development model is constructed around a town centre. The town is also served by multiple lines of the Light Rail. According to the early draft of the new town, the settlement was designed to have land allocated for industrial use, which would provide employment to residents, however this did not eventuate. As Hong Kong transformed into a service-oriented economy, only 30% of residents in the western New Territories (including the Tuen Mun, Yuen Long, and Tin Shui Wai New Towns) worked locally, according to 2011
census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses inc ...
. In 2019, some industrial buildings of the new town applied to be rezoned for commercial use. However, it was also reported that due to the opening of the
Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macau Bridge The Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macau Bridge (HZMB) is a bridge–tunnel system consisting of a series of three cable-stayed bridges, an undersea tunnel, and four artificial islands. It is both the longest sea crossing and the longest open-sea fi ...
, some industrial buildings were rented by logistic companies in 2018. A number of logistics companies also expressed interest in land leases near the River Trade Terminal in 2018. The road infrastructure of the town to other areas of Hong Kong relies on Tuen Mun Road and
Castle Peak Road Castle Peak Road is the longest road in Hong Kong. Completed in 1920, it runs in the approximate shape of an arc of a semi-circle. It runs West from Tai Po Road in Sham Shui Po, New Kowloon, to Tuen Mun, then north to Yuen Long then east ...
, as well as roads to northern
Yuen Long District Yuen Long District (formerly romanised as Un Long) is one of the districts of Hong Kong. Located in the northwest of the New Territories, it had a population of 662,000 in 2021 Geography Yuen Long District contains the largest alluvial pla ...
. Until the opening of the West Rail in 2003, local residents suffered from traffic congestion on Tuen Mun Road and Castle Peak Road. However, as of 2019, the railway line also reached its capacity and the government had planned new road to connect the town to the CBD via the site of the Lantau Tomorrow Vision project.
Tuen Mun–Chek Lap Kok Link The Tuen Mun–Chek Lap Kok Link (, abbreviated as TM–CLKL) is a road project in the New Territories, Hong Kong. It comprises two elements: the "Northern Connection" and the "Southern Connection". The Northern Connection comprises an undersea t ...
was opened in 2020. Tuen Mun Ferry Pier serves as the pier for the town to connect to Mainland China, and Macau, as well as local destinations such as Lantau Island. In the past it also had scheduled ferries to
Hong Kong Island Hong Kong Island is an island in the southern part of Hong Kong. Known colloquially and on road signs simply as Hong Kong, the island has a population of 1,289,500 and its population density is 16,390/km2, . The island had a population of a ...
. The boundary and land uses of the town are still regulated by Tuen Mun Outline Zoning Plan. The government still periodically updates the plan. The first plan was approved by
Governor-in-Council The King-in-Council or the Queen-in-Council, depending on the gender of the reigning monarch, is a constitutional term in a number of states. In a general sense, it would mean the monarch exercising executive authority, usually in the form of a ...
in 1967. As of 2018, the statutory boundaries of the town are "the ridges of Castle Peak to the west, Lam Tei Interchange of
Castle Peak Road Castle Peak Road is the longest road in Hong Kong. Completed in 1920, it runs in the approximate shape of an arc of a semi-circle. It runs West from Tai Po Road in Sham Shui Po, New Kowloon, to Tuen Mun, then north to Yuen Long then east ...
to the north, and Tai Lam Country Park to the east. To the southeast the area extends to
Siu Lam Siu Lam () is an area and a village in Tuen Mun District, Hong Kong. Administration Siu Lam is one of the 36 villages represented within the Tuen Mun Rural Committee. For electoral purposes, Siu Lam is part of the So Kwun Wat So Kwun Wat, comm ...
Interchange of Tuen Mun Road, while to the southwest it extends to Tap Shek Kok." In 2017, the local council rejected the government's plan to convert some land from "government, institution and community" use or "open space" to residential.


Tuen Mun town centre

The town centre was designed to have public library, education centre, theatre, convention and exhibition hall, arts museum, as well as government building that connects to commercial buildings, which house supermarkets, banks and other shops that provide daily needs. In a history book edited by Lau Chi-pang () and Liu Shuyong (), they give a positive review on the town planning, which they describe the Tuen Mun town centre is the "centre of gravity" () of the town: In 1971, the section of the town that encompassing the existing market town San Hui was considered as the most-valuable land for high-rise private residential use. These residential area are designated as Tuen Mun Area 10, 11 and 13 in the OZP, which they are bordering one to another. Area 11 also accommodated the planned town centre. Tuen Mun Area 34, due west to Area 11 and 13, was designed to be an open space. Area 34 is now known as Tuen Mun Park. News reports also consider residential blocks of the , Kam Wah Garden, Tuen Mun Town Plaza and are the four major residential estates of the town centre. In urban zoning, they were located at the aforementioned Area 11, as well as on a small strip of Area 37 of the Tuen Mun OZP. Another private residential estate, Tuen Mun Centre (), is situated at Area 10, which also marked as the site of the San Hui. Another land lease, Tuen Mun Town Lot №513, which was sold by the government in 2014, was also considered as next to the town centre and the railway station by the real estate critics. Nowadays, near to the Tuen Mun railway station, are Tuen Mun Town Hall, Tuen Mun Public Library, Tuen Mun Clinic, Tuen Mun Government Offices, Tuen Mun Law Courts, Tuen Mun Park, as well as shopping centres such as V City, The Trend Plaza Shopping Arcade, Tuen Mun Town Plaza shopping centre, as well as
pentahotel Penta Hotels is a hotel brand with 28 hotels with this name across Europe and Asia . Business overview Penta's hotels feature Penta PlayerPad Rooms featuring gaming consoles and other arcades facilities. The brand also pioneered the "check in a ...
Tuen Mun, etc. Those public facilities were mostly located in Area 11 as well as Area 37, while the V City and its associated residential blocks, are located in Area 10. The railway station itself is located above the river, which divides Area 10 to Area 9.


Politics

Some constituencies of the
Tuen Mun District Council The Tuen Mun District Council () is the District Council of Tuen Mun District, in the New Territories. It is one of 18 such councils. The Council consists of 32 members with 31 of those elected through first past the post system every four year ...
serve the new town, although the boundaries of the constituencies differ from the boundaries of the urban planning OZP. The executive branch of the district-level government, the Tuen Mun District Office of the
Home Affairs Department The Home Affairs Department is an executive agency in the government of Hong Kong responsible for internal affairs of the territory. It reports to the Home and Youth Affairs Bureau, headed by the Secretary for Home Affairs. Purpose The D ...
, is located on the second floor of Tuen Mun Government Offices, a building located within the new town at 1 Tuen Hi Road.


Gallery

File:Kau Keng Shan 1.jpg, View of Tuen Mun New Town and Kau Keng Shan from Castle Peak. Image:Tuen Mun Town Centre 201409.jpg, Tuen Mun Town centre File:Residence in Sam_Shing area.jpg, Residence in Sam Shing area.


See also

* Hong Kong Gold Coast, a private housing estate built on the shores of the Castle Peak Bay *
Castle Peak Power Station The Castle Peak Power Station () is the largest coal-fired power station in Hong Kong. It is situated in Tap Shek Kok, Tuen Mun District, on the north shore of Urmston Road. It was named after the nearby Castle Peak. The station consists of four ...
, an electric power station that located within the town boundaries * Hung Shui Kiu, a new town which is located partially in Tuen Mun District


References

{{HK new towns 1960s establishments in Hong Kong New towns in Hong Kong New towns started in the 1960s