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 that were developed by the Hong Kong Government in the New Territories from the 1960s. It was built around the existing rural local centre of Tuen Mun ( Castle Peak). The new town covers most of the urban area of Tuen Mun District.
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 can be traced back 6,000 years. The area was part of a larger region which was leased from the Qing Empire to the British Empire in 1898 for 99 years as part of the Convention for the Extension of Hong Kong Territory. 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 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 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. 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. 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, 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, as well as roads to northern Yuen Long District. 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 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.