Then & Now | How Hong Kong’s New Territories offered unique attractions a century ago
- European visitors from Hong Kong Island and Kowloon would head to the New Territories for days at a time, aided by the new Kowloon-Canton Railway line
- Hunting, golfing and military responsibilities would have been some of the most common draws, while some just wanted to get away from it all
Ambitious development plans to transform most of the New Territories adjacent to Shenzhen into the “Northern Metropolis” will – within a few years – permanently alter Hong Kong’s last sizeable semirural zone.
Allegedly intended to provide massively increased housing solutions for a population that has been in a consistent decline for several years, overall rationale for the Northern Metropolis scheme – like much else in contemporary Hong Kong – will only become apparent with the ripeness of time.
While the project’s sheer ambitious scale surpasses anything previously envisaged, transformational development in the northern New Territories is nothing new; well over a century ago, Fanling, Sheung Shui, Kwu Tung and surrounding areas experienced sustained residential development that continued until the Japanese invasion in 1941.
Even before the Convention of Peking lease – which created the New Territories – was concluded in 1898, bird shooting in these areas was popular with recreational hunters, who came up from Hong Kong for a few days at a time, usually by launch.
Snipe, ducks and other water birds bagged in the Deep Bay shallows and surrounding wetland areas found their way into game pie and other tasty, now largely forgotten dishes, as various period memoirs attest.