Tuen Mun District

Tuen Mun is situated in the western part of the New Territories facing Ling Ding Yang, with Macau just across the sea.

According to archaeologists, a small population settled in Tuen Mun as far back as in the New Stone Age and which represented a major tribe. By the end of the Tang Dynasty, booming Sino-Western trade attracted a lot of foreign merchant ships to China and most of them berthed at Tuen Mun for replenishment. To protect the merchant fleets, the Administration of the Tang Dynasty stationed troops in Tuen Mun and set up a sentry post there. This was the origin of the name of Tuen Mun. Despite the rise and fall of subsequent dynasties, Tuen Mun's position as a water-borne traffic hub in southern China has not changed. During the period of the Five Dynasties, the Southern Han set up the office of coastguard and a military camp in Tuen Mun. In the Song Dynasty, an inspection and patrol office were set up to deal with pirates. Sentry offices were again set up in the Ming Dynasty. Midway through the Ming Dynasty, the Portuguese once seized control of the waterway leading to the Pearl River Delta and set up military camps in Tuen Mun but were later driven away by the Guangdong Navy.

During the Qing Dynasty, Tuen Mun had developed into a fishing and farming village. Many of the settlers made their living as fishermen. Salt fields were found everywhere over the Tuen Mun Valley. There was no proper road in Tuen Mun even as late as in 1899. The lack of convenient land transport left water-borne transport to be the only alternative. Castle Peak Bay was a desolate area with only a few huts dwelled by fishing families and the villagers took drinking water from streams among the rocks. Kau Hui and San Hui were marketplaces at that time while San Hui had a population of only 250.

The development of Tuen Mun New Town started in the 1960s and no major expansion project took place until the 1970s. Today, the layout plans cover an area of more than 2,200 hectares, almost the size of the Kowloon Peninsula. Of these, more than 200 hectares are reclaimed land. In just 30 years' time, Tuen Mun's population has skyrocketed from 20,000 to 500,000, at an astonishing pace.