Tuen Mun New Town

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 (a.k.a. Castle Peak), which has since been referred to as the Tuen Mun Kau Hui‌ [yue] and the Tuen Mun San Hui. The new town covers most of the urban area of Tuen Mun District.

The model of development is quite similar to Sha Tin New Town, with town centre built in the middle. While the southern parts of the town is similar to Tai Po New Town.

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 29 acres (12 ha) of land near an area known as "Tuen Mun San Hui" (Chinese: 屯門新墟; Jyutping: Tyun4 Mun4 San1 Heoi1; Cantonese Yale: Tyùhn Mùhn Sān Hēui; lit. 'Tuen Mun new market'). 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 wasn't carried out until 2019.

The first public housing estate of the new town was San Fat Estate. It was completed in 1971.

Tuen Mun New Town, as of 1971, was 20 miles (32 km) by road and 15 miles (24 km) 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 [sic] (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.