XN000022-1975-03-31 — Page 9

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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.