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The Queen will see Kwai Chung's most outstanding feature, the
container terminal, when she is driven there from Tsuen Wan.
Tsuen Wan New Town is already half developed. About 75 per cent
of its 400,000 population are accommodated in eight fully-completed and
two partially-completed public housing estates.
Present-day Tsuen Wan lies partly on reclaimed land, but also
covers an area previously occupied by rural folk who relied upon the soil
and the sea for their livelihood,
Before World War II, some industrial development occurred along
Castle Peak Road, but the pace was leisurely. It was the tide of immigrants into the area from 1949 which brought about the first population increase.
This sudden influx of manpower was successfully tapped by textile
entrepreneurs who settled in the area and opened mills.
By the early 1950s, Tsuen Wan was established as the textile
centre of Hong Kong, and it then became apparent that the area would
develop as an industrial town. As a result, a layout was drawn up and,
soon afterwards, Tai Wo Hau Estate for immigrant and indigenous squatters
was built. Old villages nearby were cleared and redeveloped.
Reclamation was subsequently carried out in the bay, and the area now making up Tsuen Wan proper began to take recognisable form in
the early 1960s.