Home of the Past: From Squatters to Public Housing
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New Towns Development

The origin of the new towns (also called satellite town, industrial satellite, industrial township, etc. at various times) can be traced back to the industrial satellites created at Kwun Tong and the new town at Tsuen Wan in the mid-1950s and early 1960s.  This was a time when there was a severe shortage of building sites for Hong Kong’s growing industries.  A start was made in 1953 when the government reclaimed some inner shores along Ngau Tau Kok and Kwun Tong on small scale to undertake the building of an industrial satellite town of 12,000 people.  In 1960, the decision was made to develop a new town in the Tsuen Wan area.  Tsuen Wan was gradually developed into a self-contained community with a balanced land-use pattern designed to allow people to live within a reasonable distance of their place of work, and with adequate pubic services, communications, and community facilities.  This had become the development framework for future new towns.

In 1965, the government decided to proceed with two further new towns in the New Territories, i.e., Castle Peak (later changed to Tuen Mun) and Sha Tin.  This marked the beginning of a long term programme of new towns in Hong Kong, though the impetus for full-scale implementation did not come about until the launching of the 10-year housing programme in 1973.  By then, the government was firmly committed to the development of new towns ‘to alleviate high density in the urban areas and to help provide an increasing population with better housing’.

Photos


  • Kwun Tong Satellite Town under development on r...

  • Castle Peak Bay

  • An aerial view of Shatin New Town in 1977

  • Farms near Tai Hing Estate in Tuen Mun