New Town, Old Village: Tin Shui Wai and Ping Shan Part 2 of the Take an Alternative Hong Kong Architecture Tour series

barry shares

Hong Kong has a totally unique growth and development situation that is complex and surprising to arriving visitors and students of urbanisation. Once the initial “wow” of the usual first-time tourist has been overcome, I like to get them to rapidly understand the historical and cultural influences that have shaped the city today. To do that, we need to get away from the lecture theatre and walk the streets, tracks and squares of the ‘alternative city’.

Tin Shui Wai New Town

The second in my series of ‘alternative tours’ is not only great for students, urban designers and planners but just as useful to anybody with a casual interest in the unique development of Hong Kong. This time we venture into both the recent and distant past with a day contrasting the 'New Territories’ most recently developed New Town; Tin Shui Wai with the ancient delights of the Ping Shan Heritage Trail. 

The metro out of Hong Kong and Kowloon follows a path linking the eight New Towns of the New Territories. These appear through the train window as nothing more than an extension of the tall and dense urban housing schemes of the city; islands of standardised housing blocks, schools and industrial zones segregated by monotonous repetition of abandoned farms and underutilised land. 

There are approximately 3 million inhabitants in the New Territories—with about half a million of these considered as indigenous— spread across about 500 villages. Some of these villages go back more than 1,000 years and have encountered myriad social, political and economic difficulties over that time. Many are now inconspicuous amongst the large new development areas and have become further invisible with the proliferation of ‘villa’-style dwellings that have come to dominate their appearance since the inception of the ‘small house policy’ in 1972. However, at the heart of the mundane, there still exist dwellings, temples and even whole villages that have escaped the passage of time and exhibit examples of a bygone era.

Tin Shui Wai Light Rail

The Light Rail is the only public transport system in Hong Kong to have fare zones and the only one with an honour system, in which there are no ticket gates. 

Starting our journey from Tin Shui Wai MTR Station, there’s an immediate opportunity to feel the contrast between the quiet village life of Ping Shan (Screen Peak) to the south and the brave new world of Tin Shui Wai (Sky Water Village). Just 25 years ago there was nothing but fish ponds and rice paddies at Tin Shui Wai, which had been converted over time by villagers as the coast receded from Ping Shan. With the decline of the traditional economies the land was reclaimed for a new town, initially conceived to hold 140,000 people but now extended to 300,000, with a population currently of about 270,000. On arrival at Tin Shui Wai it’s the Light Rail Transit (LRT) underneath the MTR station that immediately grabs the attention, and it’s a great way to rapidly tour the district.

Public Housing in Tin Shui Wai

Under the Home Ownership Scheme (HOS) the government aims to sell subsidized public housing to better-off tenants of rental flats in order to allow families in greater housing need to inhabit those apartments. It also provides an opportunity for families unable to afford to buy in the private sector to own their own home. Eligible public housing tenants and low-income residents can purchase properties at prices significantly below the market level. 


As an ancillary scheme, the Housing Authority also entered into arrangements with local private developers to provide property for sale under the Private Sector Participation Scheme (PSPS).

The Tenants Purchase Scheme (TPS) allows tenants in public housing estates  to purchase their flats at a price set well below that of the Home Ownership Scheme (HOS) owing to the age of the flats and a restriction on selling.

Taking train 705 from platform 1, we head north past Tin Yiu Estate, a public rental housing estate completed in 1992 and the first of the 19 public housing estates dominating Tin Shui Wai. Public rental housing estates are the most common type of public housing in Hong Kong, available at discounted rates to low-income residents. However public housing in Hong Kong has been provided on a variety of financial models, including the Home Ownership Scheme (HOS), Private Sector Participation Scheme (PSPS) and Tenants Purchase Scheme (TPS).

Modular construction has been adopted for both public and private housing at Tin Shui Wai, enabling rapid construction and standardisation benefits but leading to an overwhelming sense of lack of diversity and vitality in the community. As Tin Shui Wai is a recently planned town, roads and footpaths are provided more generously than typically found in Hong Kong and cycle lanes are included. However, with the rapid expansion, the government has been frequently criticised for the lack of provision of community services and facilities, especially during the first years of development. The town earned a rather unfortunate reputation for having a high incidence of social problems, including suicide and domestic violence, attributed primarily to low employment opportunities, high living density and remote location. However this appears to have improved in recent years following an extension to the MTR system in 2002, which affords increased population mobility.

Tin Shui Wai does have a town park, fairly indistinguishable from the dozens of other Hong Kong parks around the SAR. However we jump off the LRT at Wetland Park, at the north of the town, in order to visit this unique conservation, education and tourism facility intended as an ecological mitigation area (EMA) to compensate for the natural wetlands lost due to the Tin Shui Wai New Town development. The park consists of recreated habitats designed for water fowl and other wildlife, providing an accessible and hands-on experience for local visitors and an array of varied activity areas within the context of a stunning modern building.

Hong Kong Wetland Park

Hong Kong Wetland Park was one of five winners of the Awards for Excellence: Asia Pacific Competition from the Urban Land Institute in 2007

Time to leave the Wetland Park, and we can either jump back on the LRT or wander back through the streets of the new town as far as Chu Feng Station at the western edge of the park before strutting out across a canalised river, unromantically named the Tin Shui Wai Nullah, which forms a drainage ditch where an attractive river edge should rim the town. The landscape here characterises much of the New Territories, consisting of extensive plots of shipping container depots, wasteland and uncontrolled village sprawl. It’s amazing that we continually hear about the land shortages in Hong Kong, and have just witnessed the incredible density of Tin Shui Wai, when in the immediate surroundings there seems to be a relentless supply of underutilised land. Not only that, but with little development control, these areas are a complete blot on what was until recently charming agriculture and fish pond.

Tin Shui Wai Nullah

Lau Fau Shan was once famous for its oysters, which were cultivated here for several hundred years. About 100 tons were harvested every year, for both local consumption and export to neighbouring countries. Little remains of the industry today, since the storage and repair of shipping containers is more lucrative and less time-consuming. Increasing contamination of the water has been an additional factor in the decline of the village's traditional activity.

As we approach Lau Fau Shan (Floating Mountain) Village, my stomach is rumbling and it’s time for lunch—but not just any lunch. This coastal village was in the past famous for cultivating oysters, and there are still remnants of the industry, as well as a traditional feel that makes the village well worth a visit. In the narrow main street a variety of market produce is on sale, and there are small restaurants which serve fresh seafood bought to order from the neighbouring stalls. Here, too, stands a 1,500-year-old temple founded by the legendary monk Pui To.

Bus K65 takes us back to Tin Shui Wai Station, where to the south, through the glass of the large plate windows, we view the Tsui Sing Lau Pagoda and Ping Shan, one of the oldest villages in Hong Kong. Ping Shan is made up of three wai (walled villages) and six tsuen (villages) where most of the residents are Tang clansmen, whose ancestors settled in Ping Shan around the 12th century. They have now arranged their monuments and artefacts into the Ping Shan Heritage Trail, exhibiting temples, ancestral halls, study halls and Hong Kong’s oldest and only remaining ancient pagoda. 

Tsui Sing Lau Pagoda

Declared a monument in 2001, Tsui Sing Lau Pagoda is a three-storey brick structure about 13 metres tall and built more than 600 years ago.

Auspicious tiles are inscribed on each floor, and clansmen believed that from the point of view of feng shui it could facilitate success in the Civil Service Examination. Today some students still visit during examination time.

The trail meanders through Hang Mei Tsuen, Hang Tau Tsuen and Sheung Cheung Wai, linking up a number of traditional Chinese buildings, several declared monuments and graded buildings, all within easy walking distance of each other and offering an opportunity to learn more about traditional life in the New Territories. The Ping Shan Tang clan still retain certain traditional customs and organise various ceremonies during festivals.

Ping Shan Tang Clan Hall

"The door posts and lintels are of dressed granite slabs with tiled roofs on rafters made of China fir. The floors are generally concreted, and frequently paved with redbrick or with granite. Well built and handsomely decorated temples exist in all the important villages, and in many places large and expensively constructed buildings, in which the ancestral tablets are kept, were seen. As usual in China the streets are narrow and paved with large slabs of stone. Such drainage as exists is on the surface, underground drains never being used in Chinese villages."

Extract from James Stewart Lockhart's report on the ‘New Territory’  in 'Papers Submitted to the Legislative Council in 1899'.

Ping Shan Tang Clan Gallery cum Heritage Trail Visitor Centre

The culmination of the trail is the Ping Shan Tang Clan Gallery cum Heritage Trail Visitor Centre, opened in 2007 and housed in the Old Ping Shan Police Station. Built in 1900, it provides a valuable example of modern, adaptive reuse of a heritage building, whilst affording magnificent views over the surrounding terrain. Most importantly it houses fantastic relics and photographic evidence of the sweeping changes witnessed on the land and in the lifestyle of local people across the last century.

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