Tuen Mun San Hui () more commonly known as just San Hui () is an area of

Tuen Mun District Tuen Mun District is one of the 18 administrative districts of Hong Kong. It is the westernmost continental district of Hong Kong. It had a population of 487,546 in 2011. Part of the district is the Tuen Mun New Town (or simply Tuen Mun), w ...

, Hong Kong and is a major food market and commercial quarter in the district. In urban planning, it is part of

Tuen Mun New Town Tuen Mun New Town (formerly Castle Peak New Town), commonly referred to simply as Tuen Mun, is a satellite town of Hong Kong. It is one of the new towns that were developed by the Hong Kong Government in the New Territories from the 1960s. I ...

(Tuen Mun).

Etymology

San Hui () means a 'new market' in Cantonese and is referred as such in contrast to Kau Hui (), which means the 'old market'.

History

The market and the area

By the time Tuen Mun was designated as the site of a new town in 1972, San Hui had already grown into an established market in the district. The market was founded on the site of the present Eldo Court, which was once a small hill on the former northern edge of

Castle Peak Bay Castle Peak Bay is a bay outside Tuen Mun. Tuen Mun River empties into the bay. In the past, many Tanka fishermen harboured at the bay. In 1513, explorer Jorge Álvares arrived in the Pearl River Delta and started a Portuguese settlement, ...

and also the lowest bridging point in Tuen Mun before successive reclamation projects moved the shoreline further south. The market was established next to the newly built New Territories circular road: The shops of the original market town were moved into a purpose built complex to the south of the original site in the 1980s and the structure has since undergone several major changes, receiving a new exterior design, a new western entrance and air conditioning, but also losing its rooftop garden when the last was added to accommodate shafts and condensers. The area around it probably came to be known as San Hui in the 1960s, when reclamation of the bay created new land for developments and resulted in an urban settlement with a social life centred on the market itself.

New Town's new market

The market thrived with the growth of the new town and, despite the creation of a planned town centre several hundred yards to the south, continued as a popular destination for shoppers and remained a hub for local businesses. A healthy and interesting mix was on offer, including a variety of restaurants, three theatres, several banks, clinics and pharmacies, hairdressers and boutiques, and even a Sunday market offering produce from farms and villages in the district. In short, the pedestrian precinct outside of the market was the high street of the new town short of a proper name plate.

Decline

The area witnessed a general decline at the turn of the century though, when the new town centre matured and every plot in the area had been built over and major developments would not be seen for almost a decade, and the fact that the population in the area began to age did not help. Branches of each of two leading banks in Hong Kong, and almost every

Chinese restaurant A Chinese restaurant is an establishment that serves a Chinese cuisine. Most of them are in the Cantonese cuisine, Cantonese style, due to the history of the Overseas Chinese, Chinese diaspora and adapted to local taste preferences, as in t ...

in the area, would go eventually. This was accentuated by the

Asian financial crisis The Asian financial crisis was a period of financial crisis that gripped much of East Asia and Southeast Asia beginning in July 1997 and raised fears of a worldwide economic meltdown due to financial contagion. However, the recovery in 1998–1 ...

, which took Hong Kong a while to get over. At one time, almost all shops in one shopping centre, except those fronting the original site of the market, were vacant. The area has drawn new visitors from mainland China since the opening of the Deep Bay Link in 2007, which shortened journey times to Shenzhen, as well as Hong Kong citizens resident the way over buying daily necessities, probably due to concerns over the safety of food sold on the other side of the border.

Administration

Tuen Mun San Hui is a recognized village under the

New Territories The New Territories is one of the three main regions of Hong Kong, alongside Hong Kong Island and the Kowloon Peninsula. It makes up 86.2% of Hong Kong's territory, and contains around half of the population of Hong Kong. Historically, it ...

Small House Policy The Small House Policy (SHP, ) was introduced in 1972 in Hong Kong. The objective was to improve the then prevailing low standard of housing in the rural areas of the New Territories. The Policy allows an indigenous male villager who is 18 ye ...

Education

San Hui is in Primary One Admission (POA) School Net 71. Within the school net are multiple aided schools (operated independently but funded with government money); no government schools are in the school net.

Declared monument

The Morrison Building in the

Hoh Fuk Tong Centre Hoh Fuk Tong Centre () is located at 28 Castle Peak Road - San Hui, San Hui, Tuen Mun, New Territories, Hong Kong near Light Rail Hoh Fuk Tong stop. Morrison Building is a declared monument of Hong Kong. The centre was named after Rev. , t ...

, built in 1936 and named after the missionary Robert Morrison, was recognised as a

declared monument Declared monuments of Hong Kong are places, structures or buildings legally declared to receive the highest level of protection. In Hong Kong, declaring a monument requires consulting the Antiquities Advisory Board, the approval of the Chief Exec ...

in 2004.Antiquities and Monuments Office - Morrison Building
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References

External links

Delineation of area of existing village Tuen Mun San Hui (Tuen Mun) for election of resident representative (2019 to 2022)
{{Coord, 22, 24, 2.1, N, 113, 58, 50.8, E, display=title Tuen Mun