From the last post's images of new towns or new sections of towns, we move over to Yuen Long, an older, well established place that nevertheless has seen its share of modern high-rise buildings added to the old town core. Yuen Long is and has been for a long time a major town in the New Territories, which is the land added in 1898 on a 99 year lease to the original settlements of Hong Kong and Kowloon, as explained in the introduction to Hong Kong in set # 196. For the next 25 posts, my travelogue will cover places in these New Territories, exploring a number of localities including a wetland area and an isolated island at the fringes of the Hong Kong archipelago. Thus I will provide at this point a short description of the New Territories as well as of Yuen Long.

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 is the region described in the "Convention for the Extension of Hong Kong Territory". According to that treaty, the territories comprise the mainland area north of Boundary Street on the Kowloon Peninsula and south of the Sham Chun River (which is the border between Hong Kong and Mainland China), as well as over 200 outlying islands, including Lantau Island, Lamma Island, Cheung Chau, and Peng Chau in the territory of HK. - Later, after "New Kowloon" was defined from the area between Boundary Street and the Kowloon Ranges spanning from Lai Chi Kok to Lei Yue Mun, and the extension of the urban areas of Kowloon, New Kowloon was gradually urbanized and absorbed into Kowloon. The New Territories now comprises only the mainland north of the Kowloon Ranges and south of the Sham Chun River, as well as the Outlying Islands. It comprises an area of 952 km² (368 sq mi). Nevertheless, New Kowloon has remained statutorily part of the New Territories instead of Kowloon.

The New Territories were leased from Qing China by the United Kingdom in 1898 for 99 years in the Second Convention of Peking. Upon the expiry of the lease, sovereignty was transferred to the People's Republic of China in 1997, together with the Qing-ceded territories of Hong Kong Island and Kowloon Peninsula. In 2011, the population of the New Territories was recorded at 3,691,093, with a population density of 3,801 per km² (9,845 per square mile).

LEASE of the NEW TERRITORIES - Hong Kong Island was ceded to Britain in 1842 and Kowloon south of Boundary Street and Stonecutters Island in 1860. The colony of Hong Kong attracted a large number of Chinese and Westerners to seek their fortune in the city. Its population increased rapidly and the city became overcrowded. The outbreak of bubonic plague in 1894 became a concern to the Hong Kong Government. There was a need to expand the colony to accommodate its growing population. The Qing Dynasty's defeat in the First Sino-Japanese War had shown that it was incapable of defending itself. Victoria City and Victoria Harbour were vulnerable to any hostile forces launching attacks from the hills of Kowloon. Alarmed by the encroachment of other European powers in China, Britain also feared for the security of Hong Kong. Using the most favored nation clause that it had negotiated with Peking, the United Kingdom demanded the extension of Kowloon to counter the influence of France in southern China in June 1898. Chinese officials stayed in the walled confines of Kowloon City.

The article in Wikipedia covering the New Territories continues with interesting details of the British assumption of sovereignty and New town development. Its length puts it outside of what I want to present in this post, but if you are interested, you can access the full information on the New Territories via this link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Territories#:~:text=The%20New%20Territories%20is%20one,the%20population%20of%20Hong%20Kong.


YUEN LONG - The central part of Yuen Long was traditionally a market town, in the area now known as Yuen Long San Hui, where people from the surrounding villages sold their crops and fish. The market is still today 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 have also established.

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 "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 center 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 along the southern shores to connect the 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, Yuen Long Town dramatically increased in size, going from a small village into a large town known for its numerous cultural and sporting events. The population figures changed over the past 70 years from 140,000 (1950) to 280,000 (1970), 410,000 (1990), 500,000 (2010) to presently around 550,000.

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In today's post we start out seeing a few larger market scenes and high-rise buildings, followed by details of the fruit and vegetables offered at the market stalls.


Notes
TRIP INFO: Set # 1 provides a brief introduction to THIS SERIES on SOUTH & EAST ASIA. See it at
https://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-724330-1.html

HONG KONG COUNTRY INFO in set # 196: https://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-762698-1.html

EARLIER POSTS of this series: Access my topic list at UHH, the new posts are listed in reverse chronological order:
https://www.uglyhedgehog.com/user-topic-list?usernum=45105

Thanks for visiting, for improved clarity please view the downloads. I look forward to your comments and questions.

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I'm not sure if it's ok to ask or make a suggestion, but with all that location information, I find that I am bouncing from your locations to the map, then back up again numerous times, passing all the pictures so that I can get locations in my head. Can you place a map near/or within the descriptions and then let us drop to the pictures, which, BTW are colorful and descriptive without narration actually? Way too crowded for me. Yikes. (NOTE: I don't even try to shop on big sales days or Black Friday)
I am not criticizing you, just making a suggestion. I have never been there but sure would like to visit I think.