• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

Strictly speaking, everything north of Kowloon’s Boundary St up to the border with mainland China is the New Territories. The northernmost part of the New Territories, within 1km of the Chinese frontier, is a ‘closed border area’ that is fenced and well marked with signs. It marks the boundary of the Hong Kong SAR with the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone (SEZ).

Almost four million people, up from less than half a million in 1970, call the New Territories home – about half the total population of Hong Kong. Most of them live in ‘New Towns’. Since its inception in the 1950s, the New Towns program has consumed more than half of the Hong Kong government’s budget, with much of the funding spent on land reclamation, sewage, roads and other infrastructure projects.

A glance at the MTR’s network map shows how well connected much of it is by rail and the gaps are more than adequately filled by the extensive bus networks run for the most part by the Kowloon Motor Bus Co (KMB; 2745 4466; www.kmb.hk/english.php), alongside green minibuses, which run on just under 200 routes. For detailed bus route information check the KMB website. Getting around by taxi may not be quite the breeze it is in the urban centres, but it is still feasible: there are more than 2840 taxis cruising the streets and country roads of the New Territories. Ferries and kaido (small, open-sea ferries) serve the more remote areas and a few large communities on the coast.

Return to beginning of chapter

TSUEN WAN

The Arts Click here

Among the easiest destinations in the New Territories to reach, Tsuen Wan ( Map), or ‘Shallow Bay’, is an industrial and residential New Town northwest of Kowloon, with some 290,000 inhabitants. It’s nothing special to look at, but it does have a fine (though small) museum and some of the most colourful and active temple and monastic complexes in Hong Kong, including the serene Western Monastery (opposite) and the vivid Yuen Yuen Institute (opposite), stuffed with all manner of deities.

Chung On St, south of the Tsuen Wan MTR station, is famed for its jewellery and goldsmith shops. Tak Wah Park ( 6.30am-11pm) in the centre of town has ancient trees, footbridges over ponds and ornamental stone mountains. It’s a peaceful place and an ideal spot to take a break from the hustle and bustle of the town around it.

The MTR station is on Sai Lau Kok Rd, with the Luk Yeung Galleria shopping centre above it. The main bus station is opposite the MTR on Castle Peak Rd (exit A2), but buses and green minibuses pick up and disgorge passengers throughout the New Town. Tsuen Wan is the last station on the Tsuen Wan MTR line. If you’re really in a hurry to get there or back, change to the Tung Chung MTR line at Lai King, which has fewer stops.

YUEN YUEN INSTITUTE Off Map

2492 2220; Lo Wai Rd; 8.30am-5pm; green minibus 81

Stuffed with vivid statuary of Confucian and Buddhist deities, the Yuen Yuen Institute, in the hills northeast of Tsuen Wan, is very much on the tourist trail but is well worth a visit nonetheless. The main building is a (vague) replica of the Temple of Heaven in Beijing. On the upper ground floor are three Taoist immortals seated in a quiet hall; walk down to the lower level to watch as crowds of the faithful pray and burn offerings to the 60 incarnations of Taoist saints lining the walls. This place is packed out at Chinese New Year. There are also deities representing particular years and birth signs, to which worshippers pray and make offerings.

To reach both the Institute and the Western Monastery, take minibus 81 from Shiu Wo St, two blocks due south of Tsuen Wan MTR station (exit B1). Bus 43X from along Tai Ho Rd, further south of the MTR station (exit D), will drop you off on Sam Tung Uk Rd. The monastery is several hundred metres away and the institute is just up the hill. A taxi from the MTR station will cost around $35.

WESTERN MONASTERY Map

2411 5111; Lo Wai Rd; 8.30am-5.30pm; green minibus 81

A short distance down from the Yuen Yuen Institute, the Buddhist Western