New towns of Hong Kong

Kwun Tong, located in eastern Kowloon, and Tsuen Wan, located in the south-west of the New Territories, were designated as the first satellite towns, when the urban area in Hong Kong was still relatively small, restricted to the central and western parts of Kowloon Peninsula and the northern side of Hong Kong Island.

Wah Fu Estate was also built in a remote corner on the southern side of Hong Kong Island, with similar concepts but at a smaller scale.

As most flat lands in Hong Kong Island and Kowloon had already been developed, the government proposed to build new towns in the New Territories, a largely rural area at that time.

The first phase of new-town development, which began in 1973, included Tsuen Wan, Sha Tin and Tuen Mun.

With the success of these new towns, and the experience gained from building them, the government launched further stages of new-town development in subsequent decades.

To date, nine new towns have been built, and about half of the Hong Kong population lives in these newly developed areas.

Land use is carefully planned in new towns, and development sets aside plenty of room for public housing projects.

The British government had developed new towns in the United Kingdom to help relocate displaced populations after the Second World War.

The government in the 1950s originally had no plans to deal with the problem of housing the increasing population, until the Shek Kip Mei Fire in 1953 destroyed the homes of 58,203 people in a shanty town.

At first, it identified Tsuen Wan and Kwai Chung as sites for the first satellite towns, but it then found that Kwun Tong, located in then-underdeveloped eastern Kowloon, would be attractive to people living in the slums of nearby Ngau Tau Kok.

As most flat lands in Kowloon and Hong Kong Island had already been developed, the government proposed to build new towns in New Territories, a largely rural area at that time.

These newly developed towns, maturing in the 1980s, provided new homes to more than 1 million Hong Kong people.

The planning of the new towns was, in colonial history, the first major attempt at horizontal coordination among government departments.

Regarding it as a cornerstone of Hong Kong social policy, the colonial government aimed to alleviate urban overpopulation and improve quality of life for ordinary citizens.

The Kowloon–Canton Railway was electrified in the early 1980s in order to provide convenient transport to the new towns at Fanling-Sheung Shui, Tai Po and Sha Tin.

These new towns in the north-western New Territories were finally connected to urban areas with direct railway service when KCR West Rail (now part of the Tuen Ma Line) opened in 2003.