Hong Kong Photo Gallery - Yuen Long

Yuen Long became a population centre in the late Yuan Dynasty and was once home to indigenous clans. Today, it is a major suburb of about 600,000 people although wetlands and hiking trails are within short striking distance.

While government authorities talk about the lack of land in the city, justifying expensive reclamation projects, notice these sections of the New Territories are relatively empty with lowrise buildings. This is because the local clans are powerful politically so the prospect of expropriating their land to build mass housing has been impossible.

The Yoho Midtown development clusters around Yuen Long station with walls of tall skyscrapers on top of a luxury mall.

However, the real Yuen Long is across the street in shorter and grittier buildings and their vibrant street-level retail.

The Reach consists of 12 towers of 25 stories each and is designed for middle income families. About 80% of the flats are sized between 490 and 600 square feet.

Despite the few highrises here and there, once off the main road, the landscape is still quite rural.

Yuen Long Park has an observation tower that commands 360-degree views of the northwest New Territories. In the following views north, Shenzhen can be clearly seen.

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