Yuen Long is a town in the western
New Territories, Hong Kong. To its west lie
Hung Shui Kiu (),
Tin Shui Wai,
Lau Fau Shan and
Ha Tsuen, to the south
Shap Pat Heung and
Tai Tong, to the east
Au Tau and
Kam Tin (), and to the north
Nam Sang Wai.
Name
The Cantonese name Yuen Long may refer to the limits of the original market town,
Yuen Long New Town,
Yuen Long Plain
The Yuen Long Plain, in the northwestern corner of the New Territories, is the largest alluvial plain in Hong Kong. With an area of , it was formed between the time of the Tang dynasty (618907) and Song dynasty (9601279). It covers Yuen Long ...
or
Yuen Long District.
Market town
The central part of Yuen Long was traditionally a
market town
A market town is a Human settlement, settlement most common in Europe that obtained by custom or royal charter, in the Middle Ages, a market right, which allowed it to host a regular marketplace, market; this distinguished it from a village or ...
, in the area now known as Yuen Long San Hui (), in
Yuen Long District, where people from the surrounding villages sold their crops and fish. The market is still a place where people from villages in the northwest New Territories shop and trade. Like many market towns in Hong Kong, the market operates only on certain days each week. Modern
shopping malls and
restaurants
A restaurant is a business that prepares and serves food and drinks to customers. Meals are generally served and eaten on the premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and food delivery services. Restaurants vary greatly in appearance ...
have also established.
New towns
Two new towns have been developed in Yuen Long since the 1970s:
Yuen Long New Town was developed in and around the market town in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Tin Shui Wai New Town was established in the 1990s to the west of Yuen Long New Town, separate from Yuen Long New Town. It is mostly residential.
There are
Light Rail Transit and several bus routes serving between the two towns.
Housing estate
The private residential estate
Fairview Park Fairview Park may refer to:
Australia
*Fairview Park, South Australia
Canada
* CF Fairview Park (aka Fairview Park Mall), a shopping centre in Kitchener, Ontario
Hong Kong
*Fairview Park (Hong Kong), a private residential estate in the New Terri ...
is in the northeast part of Yuen Long.
History
The earliest market in Yuen Long was south of the main road, near
Tai Kei Leng. In 1669, the market was moved north to the area near the present-day
Yuen Long station. This area is now known as
Yuen Long Kau Hui (元朗舊墟, lit. "old Yuen Long Town"). This market is sited south of a small hill. While it is far from the coast today, it was beside the seashore when the market was first built.
Cheung Shing Street, which separates
Nam Pin Wai and
Sai Pin Wai, divides the centre of the market. Temples were built for worship and to judge disputes. After the British leased the New Territories in 1898, they built
Castle Peak Road to connect major areas of the New Territories and
Kowloon. The villagers proposed and moved the market town to the main road. After the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
, Yuen Long Town dramatically increased in size, going from a small village into a large town known for its numerous cultural and sporting events.
2019 Yuen Long attack
The 2019 Yuen Long attack was a mob attack that occurred on 21 July 2019, in Yuen Long, Hong Kong.
A mob of over 100 armed men dressed in white indiscriminately attacked civilians on the streets and passengers in the
Yuen Long MTR station including the elderly, children, black-clad protesters,
journalists and lawmakers.
At least 45 people were injured in the incident,
[At least 45 injured as rod-wielding mob dressed in white rampages through Yuen Long MTR station, beating screaming protesters](_blank)
– South China Morning Post including a pregnant woman. The attack happened following an
anti-extradition bill protest in
Sheung Wan, Hong Kong and was an act threatening the pro-democracy protesters who were preparing to target Yuen Long.
Climate
Cross-border activities
Due to their proximity to the
Shenzhen
Shenzhen (; ; ; ), also historically known as Sham Chun, is a major Sub-provincial division, sub-provincial city and one of the Special economic zones of China, special economic zones of China. The city is located on the east bank of the Pea ...
border in China's
Guangdong
Guangdong (, ), alternatively romanized as Canton or Kwangtung, is a coastal province in South China on the north shore of the South China Sea. The capital of the province is Guangzhou. With a population of 126.01 million (as of 2020 ...
province, towns in the northern parts of Hong Kong, notably Sheung Shui and Yuen Long, have become hubs for parallel traders who have been buying up large quantities of goods, forcing up local prices and disrupting the daily lives of local citizens. Since 2012, there has been a vertiginous increase in Chinese
parallel traders arriving in the
North District of Hong Kong to re-export infant formula and household products – goods popular with the Chinese – across the border to Shenzhen. Trafficking caused chronic local shortages of milk powder in Hong Kong, which led the government to impose restrictions on the amount of milk powder exports from Hong Kong.
The first anti-parallel trading protest was started at Sheung Shui in September 2012. As government efforts to limit the adverse impact of Chinese trafficking were widely seen as inadequate, there have been further
subsequent protests in towns in the North District including Sheung Shui.
A campaign called
Liberate Yuen Long was mounted on 1 March 2015 by
localist groups to protest smuggling and parallel trading.
Public transport
The following information show transportation in Yuen Long.
Inside Yuen Long Town
Buses
*
KMB KMB or kmb may refer to:
* KMB Jazz, a record label
* Khushhali Microfinance Bank, Pakistan
* Kimberly-Clark Corporation, NYSE symbol
* Kowloon Motor Bus, Hong Kong
*Kimbundu
Kimbundu, a Bantu language which has sometimes been called Mbundu
or ...
routes 53, 54, 64K, 68A, 68E, 68F, 68M, 68R, 68X, 76K, 77K, 264R, 268A, 268B, 268C, 268P, 268X, 269D, 276, 276P, 869, 968, 968A, 968X, B1, N269, N368, R968
** Route B1 to
Lok Ma Chau station Control Point, a customs checkpoint between
Hong Kong
Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...
and China
*
MTR Bus routes K65, K66, K68, K73, K74
*
Long Win Bus routes A36, E36, E36A, N30, NA36
*
New Lantao Bus route B2
** Route B2 to
Shenzhen Bay Port, a customs checkpoint between Hong Kong and China
Rail
*
MTR Tuen Ma line
*
Light Rail routes 610, 614, 615 and 761P
Outside Yuen Long Town (except via Yuen Long Town)
Buses
* KMB routes 51, 64S, 69C, 69M, 69P, 69X, 251A, 251B, 251M, 265B, 265M, 265S, 269A, 269B, 269C, 269M, 269P, 276A, 276B
* MTR Bus routes K75, K75A, K75P
* Long Win Bus routes A37, E36P, E37, NA37
* New Lantao Bus routes B2P, B2X
** Routes B2P and B2X to
Shenzhen Bay Port, a customs checkpoint between Hong Kong and China
*
Citybus routes 967, 967X, 969, 969A, 969B, 969C, 969P, 969X, N969
Rail
* MTR Tuen Ma line
* Light Rail routes 705, 706 and 751
Demographics
Yuen Long residents are mainly local ethnic Han with a sizable
Hoa
The Hoa people (Vietnamese: ''Người Hoa'', or ) are citizens of Vietnam of full or partial Chinese origin. Chinese migration into Vietnam dates back millennia but most Hoa today derive their recent ancestral Chinese heritage from the 18th ...
immigrants, Vietnamese Chinese from the 1970s to 1990s.
Education
The Yuen Long West area, meaning areas west of Tai Tong Road and the Yuen Long
Nullah and south of Kau Yuk Road, is in Primary One Admission (POA) School Net 73. The other parts are in POA 74.
Within POA 73 are multiple aided schools (operated independently but funded with government money) and one government school: South Yuen Long Government Primary School (南元朗官立小學).
POA 74 has multiple aided schools and one government school: Yuen Long Government Primary School (元朗官立小學).
Schools in Yuen Long include:
*
Yuen Long Public Secondary School
*
N.T. Heung Yee Kuk Yuen Long District Secondary School
The New Territories Heung Yee Kuk Yuen Long District Secondary School (abbreviated as NTHYKYLDSS) () is a Hong Kong secondary school located in Yuen Long, New Territories. Its motto is in Chinese "務本力學", meaning "conscientiousness and ...
*
Yuen Long Catholic Secondary School
Yuen Long Catholic Secondary School (), which was established in 1995 by Catholic Diocese of Hong Kong, is a subsidized co-educational school located in Hong Kong. Being a vocational school
A vocational school is a type of educational ...
*
ELCHK Yuen Long Lutheran Secondary School
The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Hong Kong (; Abbreviated as ELCHK) is a Lutheran denomination in Hong Kong.
History
On 27 February 1954, its establishing ceremony was held at Tao Fong Shan, Sha Tin with representatives from all Lutheran cong ...
*
CCC Kei Yuen College
The Yuen Kong Kindergarten is in Yuen Kong Tsuen. It had five students in 2009 and 64 students in 2011; Elaine Yau of the ''
South China Morning Post'' stated that the school had faced closure but has since improved. The film ''
Little Big Master'' is about the kindergarten.
In popular culture
The 2003 Hong Kong drama ''
Vigilante Force'' by
TVB starring
Bowie Lam is set in Yuen Long.
The school in 2020 Hong Kong drama ''
We are the Littles'' by
ViuTV starring
Stephy Tang,
Zeno Koo
Zeno ( grc, Ζήνων) may refer to:
People
* Zeno (name), including a list of people and characters with the name
Philosophers
* Zeno of Elea (), philosopher, follower of Parmenides, known for his paradoxes
* Zeno of Citium (333 – 264 BC), ...
,
Ian Chan and
Anson Lo
Anson Lo Hon-ting (; born 7 July 1995) is a Hong Kong singer, dancer and actor. In 2018, Lo made his debut as a member of the Hong Kong boy group Mirror. Lo made his solo debut in February 2020 with his first single "A Lifelong Mission" (一 ...
is in Yuen Long. The same school is also appeared in the 2022 Hong Kong drama ''
Into the Wild'' by
ViuTV starring
Stanley Yau
Stanley Yau Sze-chun ( zh, t=邱士縉; born 20 August 1990) is a Hong Kong people, Hong Kong singer, dancer, actor, and a member of the Hong Kong boy group Mirror (group), Mirror. Apart from his group activities, Stanley has starred in televisi ...
.
See also
*
2019 Yuen Long attack
The 2019 Yuen Long attack, also known as the 721 incident, refers to a mob attack that occurred in Yuen Long, a town in the New Territories in Hong Kong, on the evening of 21 July 2019. It took place in the context of the 2019–2020 Hong Ko ...
References
{{Coord, 22, 26, 40.09, N, 114, 01, 32.88, E, region:HK, display=title
Yuen Long District