ENG-1978 — Page 18

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Hong Kong's New Towns

HONG KONG is undergoing a period of dynamic change as far-reaching development programmes forge ahead to create new urban centres that will ultimately accommodate more than two million people.

Beyond the range of hills which separates the densely-populated areas of urban Kowloon from the largely rural expanse of the New Territories, three new towns are being created simultaneously in what is the largest project of its kind in the world. The three towns Tsuen Wan, Tuen Mun and Sha Tin have been planned as self-contained communities providing housing, hospitals, schools, shopping, com- munity amenities and light industry. Thousands of people each month are moving to these centres in one of the biggest social achievements in the history of Hong Kong. This ambitious programme is changing the face of the New Territories' mainland - a 730-square kilometre area reaching from Kowloon to the border with China. Until recently, the contrast between rural and urban Hong Kong has been marked; the ridge of 'dragon' hills has separated them; there has been no expansion north- wards and the crowded, noisy, energetic cities of modern high-rise development have been contained on each side of Victoria Harbour.

Much of the New Territories is steep, barren mountain and inhospitable rock, but there are green lowlands and fertile valleys that are farmed and cultivated; a patchwork of market gardens, vegetable fields and orchards is stitched across them. Some of the slopes are still grooved and fringed with the stepped contours of old hill cultivation, stamped and moulded over the centuries and now disused, overgrown and only a pattern on the rocky soil. There has been a drift away from the land as young people have struck out to the urban areas or migrated to London and Amsterdam to work in restaurants and family businesses. For the remaining villagers living in houses of stone and thick tiles, their traditional way of life has continued relatively undisturbed. In the hamlets that are clustered around market towns the seasonal rhythm of seed- time and harvest has not been interrupted. The New Territories has moved at a slower pace than Kowloon, only a short distance to the south, beyond the dividing hills, where in some areas people live in the most crowded square kilometres in the world.

The nine 'dragon' hills of Kowloon that separate the New Territories from the rest of Hong Kong imposed a formidable barrier to easy road construction. In the past five years, however, the area has become increasingly accessible through a major road building programme including the construction of a second Lion Rock Tunnel. While giving top priority to the development of new urban centres, the government is