NEW TOWNS
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along Castle Peak Bay; and the green Tuen Mun valley. The objective is to develop civic pride and a sense of belonging. Alongside the town centre, with its public library, theatre, art gallery, exhibition halls and meeting rooms, is a large public park of 10.7 hectares. The emphasis is on open space about one-tenth of the new town is parkland with the town plan making ample provision for landscaped gardens, children's playgrounds and swimming pools.
Sha Tin: Vitalising a Valley
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Sha Tin New Town lies along a valley at the southernmost inlet of Tolo Harbour, to the north of the Kowloon Peninsula. According to legend, the soil of this valley was so fertile in days gone by that rice from the local farms was carried thousands of kilometres north to Peking, to be served at the Emperor's table. For visitors travelling through Sha Tin on the Kowloon-Canton Railway it was, until quite recently, a picture of the traditional countryside, with lush rice paddies in sight of the sea and green wooded slopes rising to the barrier of hills that separates the valley from urban Kowloon.
When completed in the mid-1980s, Sha Tin will have a population of 570,000 on 1,720 hectares of developed land. The former farms, pig breeding concerns, squatter areas and villages are being rapidly replaced by a modern environment that includes both government and private high-rise housing blocks, schools, a large town centre, a 1,400-bed teaching hospital, parks, sportsgrounds, new roads and factories for light industry. The development has been planned in two stages; the second stage commenced during the year with the formation and reclamation of new areas.
There were many problems to be overcome in planning the new town and many local factors had to be considered. Because it is almost surrounded by steep hills, Sha Tin is vulnerable to smoke pollution; as a result only light industries are allowed and they must burn pollution-free fuels. The Shing Mun River running through the middle of the town is, at present, heavily polluted and the plan is to clean the river-bed
1 entirely of its septic mud.
Disposal of sewage has posed another problem. Elsewhere in Hong Kong sewage can be screened and, after entering the sea through submarine outfalls, be swept away by the tides. But this is not feasible for Sha Tin because the adjacent waterway - Tolo Harbour is almost landlocked. A local sewage treatment plant is therefore being built at an estimated cost of $225 million.
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Sha Tin also must plan against possible flooding. When a typhoon or severe tropical storm strikes Hong Kong, combined with certain conditions of wind and tide, the waters of narrower inlets can expect to undergo a so-called 'cyclonic surge', which unleashes tides three metres or more above normal. These 'surges' are infrequent at intervals of about 30 years - but in the past, during Typhoon Wanda in 1961 and earlier in 1937, they caused serious flooding in the Sha Tin valley. This means reclama- tion levels in Sha Tin must be higher than normal, and special precautions have been taken to preserve such landmarks as low-lying Tsang Tai Uk, an old walled village near the Lion Rock Tunnel.
In its early stages, Sha Tin has been largely a 'dormitory' area for Kowloon and Hong Kong Island. But as local light industry develops, jobs will be provided for the new town's population. Three light industry zones have been planned and in the