The internationally famous container terminals can be found within the district, along the shores of Rambler Channel between Kwai Chung and Tsing Yi Island.

In 1669, the Qing dynasty forced the people in Hong Kong and the coastal regions such as Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian, etc., to move to the inland areas of mainland China.

After this move inland policy ceased, a large number of Hakka people from the Huayang region of Guangdong province, as well as the Hakka districts of Fujian province, moved to what is now Shenzhen and Hong Kong.

Cores emerge only after Metroplaza in Kwai Fong and Maritime Square in Tsing Yi was built, but they are still incomparable to their counterparts in other new towns in Hong Kong.

Like other early new towns of Hong Kong, the district was primary for settling the influx of Chinese population around the year of the change of sovereignty in China in 1949 and the baby boom afterwards.

Some have provided vocational training for industries in Hong Kong while some have become liberal schools.