The initial plan for Tuen Mun New Town can be traced to a report by consulting firm Scott Wilson Kirkpatrick & Partners in 1959.

[5] 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.

[2]: 150  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.

[2]: 151  Rumour has it that the town was renamed because Castle Peak was more famous for a psychiatric hospital which was named after the area.

[2]: 153 The major construction works, such as land reclamation, underground drainage, electricity infrastructure, and roads were completed in 1974.

[4] The new town is situation in the valley between Castle Peak and Tai Lam hill [sic][2]: 154  (should be Kau Keng Shan).

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,[2]: 153 [4] 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.

[11] A number of logistics companies also expressed interest in land leases near the River Trade Terminal in 2018.

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.

[15] News reports also consider residential blocks of the Trend Plaza [zh], Kam Wah Garden, Tuen Mun Town Plaza and Waldorf Garden [zh] are the four major residential estates of the town centre.

[15] Another private residential estate, Tuen Mun Centre (Chinese: 屯門中心大廈), is situated at Area 10, which also marked as the site of the San Hui.