Tseung Kwan O (將軍澳) is located in the southern part of Sai Kung District in the New Territories, occupying an area of about 1,718 hectares. The original site is a bay also known as Junk Bay, which has been substantially reclaimed and together with the surrounding hillside, developed into the Tseung Kwan O New Town, a "third-generation new town" which the Government has endeavoured to develop since 1982. The development of Tseung Kwan O New Town began in 1982 and was carried out in three phases. In 2016, the population of the area reached 396,000 people. [1]
According to the Government's original planning, the south-central and northern parts of Tseung Kwan O New Town, i.e. Po Lam, Tsui Lam, Hang Hau, Tseung Kwan O Town Centre and Tiu Keng Leng, are mainly high-density residential areas, while the southeastern parts of Tai Chik Sha and Siu Chik Sha are planned as industrial areas and landfills, and the area around Siu Chik Sha has been transformed into a residential area in recent years.
Tseung Kwan O New Town belongs to the Sai Kung district of the New Territories, but its community structure is very different from the commonly perceived rural area of Sai Kung in the New Territories. On the contrary, it is closely related to the Kwun Tong District of Kowloon, which has led to a misunderstanding among many members of the public that Tseung Kwan O is a part of the Kowloon district, and some of the facilities in the area (e.g. shopping malls and hotels) have even claimed that they are located in "Kowloon East".
History[]
The beginning[]
Tseung Kwan O was originally the bay between Tiu Keng Leng and Clear Water Bay Peninsula, which was in the shape of a sack, and was later used as a collective name for the bay area. The name "Tseung Kwan O" appeared as early as the Ming Dynasty or before. The "Guangdong Coastal Map" attached to the "Records of Guangdong", written during the Wanli Period (1573-1620), already showed the name "Tseung Kwan O", and "Chik Sha", which is now part of the Tseung Kwan O New Town, was also shown in the map; the "Guangdong Sea Map" in the "Records of Cangwu Governor's Military Departments", written in the ninth year of the Wanli Period (1579), even stated that "Tseung Kwan O is sheltered from hurricanes. Tseung Kwan O can be sheltered from hurricanes by half tidal current from Lung Shuen Wan and two tidal currents from Tam Kon Chau (Dangan Zhou) ...... (latter text illegible)" (「將軍澳可避颶風，至龍船灣半潮水，至擔竿州二潮水……」) [2][3], which shows that Tseung Kwan O had become a good harbour for ships in the middle of the Ming Dynasty.
There is little description of Tseung Kwan O in the historical literature of the late Ming and early Qing dynasties. Based on the status of Tseung Kwan O as a sheltered harbour and its geographical characteristics, some historians have deduced that Tseung Kwan O might have been a settlement of fishermen before the implementation of the policy of "relocation to the sea" in the early Qing Dynasty [4]. After the abolition of the "Sea Relocation" policy, many Hakka immigrants were encouraged by the imperial court to migrate from various parts of the mainland to the Fukien region, and among them, those who moved to the bay area of Tseung Kwan O established three villages along the northeastern coastline of the bay, namely Hang Hau, Yau Yue Wan, and Tseung Kwan O, with Hang Hau being the earliest one to be established. The residents of the three villages made their living by fishing, and some of them also engaged in farming and raising animals. [5]
Early years of port opening[]
The British occupied Hong Kong Island, the Kowloon Peninsula and the New Territories from 1842 onwards, and Tseung Kwan O also became the British territory in 1898. The harbour became one of the places where the British Navy moored its warships, but Tseung Kwan O was still a sparsely populated area. However, due to the increasing demand for fisheries and firewood after the opening of Hong Kong, Hang Hau Village, together with Shau Kei Wan and Sai Wan Ho on Hong Kong Island, became the distribution centre for goods for the Clear Water Bay Peninsula and villages in Sai Kung; and as Clear Water Bay Road and Hiram's Highway had not yet been opened up, Hang Hau was the transit point for villagers going out in the vicinity. At that time, villagers of Sai Kung Hui had to take a boat from Sai Kung to Siu Ching Shui (Silverstrand Cove), walk across the hill on the present Hang Hau Road to the vicinity of Hang Hau Village, and then transfer to the Kaito Ferry to go to the Hong Kong Island. In 1867, Lau Shu Tong, a villager of Sheung Yeung Tsuen, made use of his savings as an apprentice in the Jardine's Dockyard Shipping Company and set up the Tung Tai Machinery Factory and the Shipyard in Hang Hau, and many villagers in the neighbourhood later set up tens of shops near the Shipyard, which became a thriving marketplace, or the Hang Hau Hui in the days to come.[6] It has become another important business town other than the Sai Kung Market. After the war, the Clear Water Bay Road and the Sai Kung Market became a major commercial centre.
After the war, when Clear Water Bay Road and Hiram's Highway were opened for civilian use, Hang Hau Hui lost its status as a transport hub. In addition, the military set up an arsenal in the vicinity of Hang Hau Hui and restricted the public's access to Hang Hau Hui, Tai Au Mun, and the area between the two areas to permit holders [7], which led to the decline of the economic situation of Hang Hau Hui. Even after the lifting of the security measures in 1957, the former prosperity of Hang Hau Hui was no longer seen. However, the authorities designated Hang Hau as a ship-breaking zone in 1960, and the coast of Ap Chai Wan was full of ship-breaking factories. Since then, American Shipbuilding, Fuji Marden & Co. Ltd., Clear Water Bay Film Studio, Hong Kong Oxygen (the site of the present-day housing estate Oscar By The Sea), and Chiaphua-Shinko Copper Alloy had set up their factories in the area, which turned Hang Hau into a major heavy industry town, and the landscape of the fishing village was changed drastically. On the other hand, Pong Ting-yuen, a famous entrepreneur in Hong Kong, bought a 500,000-square-foot waterfront site in Rennie's Mill from the Hong Kong Government in 1958 for more than $500,000, and in 1961, he formally operated the Shiu Wing Iron and Steel Works.
Development into a new town[]
As early as 1960, the Hong Kong Government planned to develop Tseung Kwan O into a new town, but the plan was later cancelled. In September 1980, the New Territories Development Department (now the Civil Engineering and Development Department) set up the "Tseung Kwan O New Town Development Office" to study the blueprint of the Tseung Kwan O New Town, and in 1982, the Executive Council confirmed the development of Tseung Kwan O into Hong Kong's seventh new town, which was to be developed in three phases.
The first phase of the new town, which included the present-day Po Lam, Tsui Lam, Hang Hau and Siu Chik Sha areas, commenced in 1983,[8] with the reclamation of Junk Bay by the Hong Kong Government and the resulting reclaimed land, together with part of the podium formed on the slopes on both sides of the narrow bay, was used for the development of the new town.[9] In 1982, the Executive Council finalised the development of Tseung Kwan O into the seventh new town of Hong Kong in three phases. Po Lam, Tsui Lam and Hang Hau were mainly developed for public and private housing, while Siu Chik Sha was mainly used for industrial and landfill purposes. The second phase of development was finalised in 1987, with the Sheung Tak area as the main development site.
The first public housing project in Tseung Kwan O New Town, Po Lam Estate, was occupied in April 1988, followed by the completion of Tsui Lam Estate in the same year, and the opening of the Carmel Divine Grace Foundation Secondary School, which was annexed to the former, in September 1987, a major milestone in the development of Tseung Kwan O New Town. Subsequently, Hang Hau was gradually developed into another residential area in the 1990s, and the first phase of the new town was largely completed. On the other hand, the Government built the Tseung Kwan O Industrial Estate and the Southeast New Territories Landfill in Tai Chek Sha, and further developed the Tseung Kwan O South site for heavy industry development, with the second phase of the Tseung Kwan O Industrial Estate gradually being occupied in 1995.
After the handover of Hong Kong's sovereignty in 1997, the third phase of the development commenced on 23 April of the following year with the construction of the Tseung Kwan O Town Centre. The Rennie's Mill Cottage Area, which was regarded as a politically sensitive "anti-communist base", was razed and reclaimed together with land for the construction of public housing. The Sheung Tak Estate to the north of the Tseung Kwan O Town Centre was completed in 1998, and the new town area gradually extended towards the south-west coast.
When the Tseung Kwan O New Town was first planned, it was proposed that an MTR extension would be built to run through the area [10]. Therefore, the development of the new town's small areas was mainly centred around the locations reserved for the MTR stations, instead of using the railway alignment to accommodate the development of the local areas as in the previous new towns in Hong Kong. Although this design was convenient for residents to travel by MTR, it was criticised for not facilitating pedestrians travelling to and from the various districts. The Tseung Kwan O Extension of the MTR (now the MTR) was opened on 18 August 2002, which not only improved Tseung Kwan O's external transport connections, but also symbolised the development of Tseung Kwan O into a well-developed new town, and the Transport Department implemented a series of bus route reorganisations.
The Tseung Kwan O Town Centre, which came into being with the opening of the Mass Transit Railway (MTR), has undergone major construction over the years and is now home to a large number of private housing estates, shopping malls and hotels. However, most of the large shopping centres in Tseung Kwan O are connected by footbridges, making it difficult for street-level shops to survive, and giving Tseung Kwan O the nickname "the city without streets". Today, the vast reclaimed land to the south of the city centre is still in its infancy, and community facilities are not yet well developed, leaving a long way to go before it can be considered a true city centre.
In the past, the English name of Tseung Kwan O's bay and land was once "Junk Bay", which was said to have been named after a Chinese sailing ship (or "junk") that was moored in the bay when the British came to Tseung Kwan O to survey the area. In June 1989, the Government's "Committee on the Correction of Geographical Names" confirmed the transliteration "Tseung Kwan O" as the official English name of the Tseung Kwan O new town, and since then "Junk Bay" has been used mainly to refer to Tseung Kwan O Bay. Nevertheless, as the word "junk" means "waste" and "rubbish" at the same time, it has been misrepresented that the name "Junk Bay" originated from the rubbish landfill, and it has even been asserted that the reclaimed area of Tseung Kwan O is made up of dumped rubbish. For example, in 1999 when the construction work of the Mass Transit Railway (MTR) Tseung Kwan O Line began, resulting in the unusual subsidence of the On Ning Garden at Hang Hau, there was a rumour that the land on which the housing estate is situated was filled up by rubbish and the name "Junk Bay" was cited as a proof of this. There were rumours that the land in the estate was filled with rubbish, citing the name "Junk Bay" as proof. However, the first landfill in Tseung Kwan O only started operation in 1978, and the name "Junk Bay" predates the emergence of the landfill in question, so the rumour is not true.
Districts[]
The geographical delineation of the eight sub-districts of Tseung Kwan O New Town was confirmed by the Government's "Committee on the Correction of Geographical Names" in June 1989 as "Po Lam", "Tsui Lam", "Hang Hau", "Tseung Kwan O Town Centre", "Tiu Keng Leng", "Pak Shing Kok", "Siu Chik Sha" and "Tai Chik Sha", and the provision of red minibus service in the area is strictly prohibited.
Po Lam[]
- The main article of this section is Po Lam.
Po Lam is the first area to be developed in the Tseung Kwan O New Town, and its name comes from Po Lam Estate, which in turn derives its name from Po Lam Road.
Po Lam is mainly a residential area with two public housing estates, Po Lam Estate and King Lam Estate, as well as a number of private housing estates, and the Metro City, currently the largest shopping mall in Tseung Kwan O, is located in this area, with its various phases spread around the MTR Po Lam Station. The area is also well-equipped with recreational and cultural facilities. Due to the early stage of development, many of Tseung Kwan O's community and recreational facilities, such as park, swimming pool and library, were located in this area, making it the de facto city centre of Tseung Kwan O in the early stages of development, which is more suitable for the status of a "city centre" than the "Tseung Kwan O Town Centre" that emerged later.
Tsui Lam[]
Tsui Lam is located at the foothills west of Po Lam and is named after the Tsui Lam Estate in the area. Tsui Lam Estate was the second public housing estate to be completed in Tseung Kwan O and one of the few estates in the area not built on reclaimed land, and was occupied in 1988.
Apart from Tsui Lam Estate and its ancillary Home Ownership Scheme (HOS) estate, the Private Sector Participation Scheme (PSPS) estate Hong Sing Garden and the Mau Wu Tsai Village also belong to the Tsui Lam district.
Hang Hau[]
- The main article of this section is Hang Hau.
In the past, Hang Hau was the main commercial, administrative and industrial centre of the Clear Water Bay Peninsula and Sai Kung District, with the Hang Hau Rural Committee covering Tseng Lan Shue, Tai Po Tsai and Tai Wan Tau.
In the late 1980s, the Hong Kong Government reclaimed land at Ap Chai Wan opposite Hang Hau Hui (now Tseung Kwan O Hospital) as part of the Tseung Kwan O New Town. The road network on the reclaimed land, i.e. Sheung Ning Road, Chung Wa Road and Pui Shing Road, formed a one-way roundabout system for vehicles travelling around the East Point City and the MTR Hang Hau Station, which is known as the "Hang Hau Circle".
Since then, the Sai Kung District Council and the Sai Kung District Office have been located at the Sai Kung Tseung Kwan O Government Complex next to the bus stop at Ming Tak Estate, so Hang Hau can also be regarded as the administrative centre of Sai Kung District.
Tiu Keng Leng[]
- The main article of this section is Tiu Keng Leng.
Tiu Keng Leng, located in the south-western part of Tseung Kwan O New Town, has been used as a squatter area since the 1950s to accommodate the remnants of the Kuomintang's military dependents who fled southwards after the Chinese Civil War, and was once known as "Little Taiwan". Following the handover of Hong Kong's sovereignty and the development of new towns, the Tiu Keng Leng Cottage Area was demolished in 1997 and reclaimed from the sea opposite to it for housing development.
Construction of the Home Ownership Scheme (HOS) flat "Kin Ming Court" commenced immediately after the Tiu Keng Leng Cottage Area was razed to the ground. After the Government ceased the production and sale of HOS flats in November 2002, the Housing Authority converted it into a public rental housing estate, which is the present-day Kin Ming Estate, while the site of the Hong Kong Tiu Keng Leng Secondary School to the east of the site and the reclaimed area opposite it were built into Choi Ming Court. The MTR Tiu Keng Leng Station is an interchange station between the Tseung Kwan O Line and the Kwun Tong Line, and is also the eastern terminus of the latter, with the private housing estate Metro Town built above. On the other hand, the site of Shiu Wing Steel Mill was converted into a private housing estate, Ocean Shores, after the clearance of the Tiu Keng Leng Cottage Area.
Tseung Kwan O Town Centre[]
View of Tseung Kwan O Town Centre from Miu Tsai Tun; the building in the middle of the picture is Bauhinia Garden
- The main article of this section is Tseung Kwan O Town Centre.
Tseung Kwan O Town Centre, or Sheung Tak Estate and the area to its south, was named by the Government as early as 1989, and the first Sheung Tak Estate in the area was occupied in 1998. However, before the opening of the Mass Transit Railway (now the Tseung Kwan O Line) in 2002, the area was very barren and the community facilities were quite inadequate, far less so than Po Lam, which has been developed for more than a decade and has a large shopping centre and cultural and recreational facilities. The name "Tseung Kwan O Town Centre" was a misnomer at that time, so the name is seldom used and most residents used the term "Sheung Tak" to refer to the area.
By 2010, the developed area of Tseung Kwan O Town Centre was still confined to the north of Chi Sin Street, where apart from Sheung Tak Estate and its ancillary Home Ownership Scheme (HOS) housing estates, there were also private housing estates such as Park Central, Tseung Kwan O Plaza, The Grandiose, and The Wings, a property above the MTR Tseung Kwan O Station, and the Bauhinia Garden, a Private Sector Participation Scheme (PSPS) housing estate, was also located in the area. The area to the south of Chi Sin Street (Tseung Kwan O Areas 66-68), which was still open space at the time except for the Broadcast Drive School and the golf course, has seen a number of new private housing estates built in recent years as a result of the Government's auctions of residential sites along Chi Sin Street since the beginning of the 2010s.
Tai Chik Sha (Industrial Estate) and Siu Chik Sha[]
- The main article of this section is Siu Chik Sha.
- The main article of this section is Tseung Kwan O Industrial Estate.
Road and street structures[]
At present, there are four sets of major external roads connecting Tseung Kwan O with Kowloon, including Tseung Kwan O Tunnel and Po Lam Road, connecting Tseung Kwan O Tunnel Road and Po Lam Road North within the new town area, and Po Shun Road, which connects Po Lam, Hang Hau and Tseung Kwan O Town Centre; therefore, Po Shun Road serves as the Primary Distributor, which is responsible for directing the traffic of Tseung Kwan O Tunnel to the various districts of the new town, while Po Shun Road intersects Po Ning Road, Po Lam Road North, Wan Po Road, Tseung Kwan O Tunnel Road, King Ling Road, Tong Ming Street, Chui Ling Road and Po Yap Road, all of which are the major roads in the area, while Pak Shing Kok, Siu Chik Sha and Tai Chik Sha in the south of Tseung Kwan O are linked up by Wan Po Road.
In Hang Hau, there is also Hang Hau Road and Ying Yip Road connecting to Clear Water Bay Road. Although Clear Water Bay Road is also a road link to Kowloon, fewer people use it to travel to Kowloon, and only KMB Route 91M and New Territories GMB Routes 11 and 11S are used by public transport, which mainly serve passengers from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and those travelling along Clear Water Bay Road.
The Tseung Kwan O - Lam Tin Tunnel and Tseung Kwan O Cross Bay Link, which was commissioned in 2022, link up the LOHAS Park, Tseung Kwan O Town Centre with Cha Kwo Ling and the Eastern Harbour Crossing, thus facilitating the use of the Eastern Harbour Crossing by Tseung Kwan O-bound traffic to cross the harbour directly, as well as benefiting the heavy vehicles travelling to and from the Tseung Kwan O South Industrial Estate and landfill areas without having to pass through the roads of the residential districts.
Development of public transport[]
Intra-district routes: For example, KMB routes 296M, 298E and 298F, which all of them have interchange discounts with other Tseung Kwan O external routes of the same company.
Travelling to and from Hong Kong Island: Residents rely heavily on the MTR. A number of cross-harbour bus routes, such as routes 691, 692, 692P and 693, have been cancelled, leaving only routes 690 and 694 in whole-day service, but the frequency of these two routes is not frequent.
To/from Kowloon: There are medium and long-distance bus routes to/from Wong Tai Sin, Kowloon City, Yau Tsim Mong and Sham Shui Po, as well as short-distance bus routes to/from Kwun Tong. However, some routes overlapping with the MTR Kwun Tong Line, such as routes 298B, 796A, 796B and 796S, have been cancelled due to insufficient patronage, or their service hours have been shortened significantly.
Travelling to and from the New Territories: Apart from Sai Kung where one can take Route 792M directly, in the early days, one mainly relied on Routes 296A, 98A or the railway to interchange at Kwun Tong. Later on, NWFB and KMB operated the 798 series to and from Sha Tin and the 290 series to and from Tsuen Wan respectively, which were well received by the residents. There are also routes A28, A29, E22A and E22S to and from the Airport, the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge Hong Kong Port and Tung Chung.
Gallery[]
Notes and references[]
- ↑ Information Services Department HKSARG, "Hong Kong Fact Sheet - New Towns, Development Areas and Urban Development Programmes", May 2016.
- ↑ The last sentence seems to be "until the tidal wave at To Ning Shan"; according to "Lung Shuen Wan" is the present day Leung Shuen Wan (High Island).
- ↑ Map published in Hal Empson, Mapping Hong Kong: A Historical Atlas, Hong Kong: Information Services Department, 1992), p.82-83.
- ↑ Wong Wing-ho, "從坑口墟到將軍澳新市鎮" (Hong Kong: Sai Kung District Council, March 2011 (revised edition)), p.56.
- ↑ Wong Wing-ho, p.57.
- ↑ Choi Tsz-kit, "百年小鎮夷平地，坑口繁華一夢消" (Hong Kong: Sai Kung District Council, January 1995), p.32-33.
- ↑ Wong Wing-ho, p.64.
- ↑ Wong Wing-ho, p.73.
- ↑ Planning Department: Planning Principles and Concepts of Tseung Kwan O
- ↑ Planning document of Tseung Kwan O MTR extension posted on hkitalk.net
Related articles[]
External links[]
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