A Glimpse of the North District

The North District has an area of approximately 14,000 hectares and a population of about 300,000. 70% of its population live in public housing estates in the new towns of Sheung Shui and Fanling. The rural inhabitants living in the 111 villages in the district amount to about 40,000 people.

Comprising Sheung Shui, Fanling, Sha Tau Kok and Ta Kwu Ling, the district is one of the regions where traditional rural features of the New Territories are best preserved.

In the past, Sheung Shui was known as "Sheung Yue City" because the north of the place was the Sheung Yue Ho (River Beas). In the late years of the Yuan Dynasty, the Liu clan came from Fujian to settle at the southern part of Guangdong. Their descendants later spread to Wang Mei Shan, Ling Ha, Siu Lam, Sheung Yue, Fuk Tin and Sheung Shui of the New Territories. When it came to the seventh generation, the chief of the clan believed the clan would prosper if they came to live together. Therefore they found place which had very good "Fung Shui" and dug a moat and built a "walled village" there. As the village overlooked the Ng Tung Ho (River Indus), it got the name of Sheung Shui Village (village above the water). Gradually the region became known as Sheung Shui.

It was said that in Tai Ling Shan there stood a cliff as white as face powder and the people living nearby called it "Fan Pik Ling" (powder cliff hill). The villages there became known as Fan Pik Ling villages. After some time, the region was named simply as "Fanling".

It was said that in the Qing Dynasty a high official came to Sha Tau Kok and took a tour to the bay at Tai Pang Wan. The sight of the clear blue sea and the glittering sand gave him an inspiration and he chanted, "Up rose the sun from the edge of the sand. High hung the moon above the water at the far end. " From then on, the villagers called the region Sha(sand) Tau(edge) Kok(far end).

It was an old story told for generations that related the name of the region to the fight against attacks from outside. In the Qing Dynasty, the villagers of Ta Kwu Ling were under constant threats of attacks from villagers of Wong Pui Ling to the north of Shenzhen River. In order to defend themselves, they made a large drum. When any invaders came in sight, they beat the drum hard to alert all villagers to come out and fight off the enemies. Hence "Ta Kwu" (beating the drum) became the name of the area.

The early settlers in the North District were farmers and thus many agricultural lots can be seen nowadays. Today, Sheung Shui and Fanling have already been developed into modern communities, yet the changes have not eliminated the traditional agricultural communities and villages.

As the North District and Shenzhen are just separated by the borderline, the three checkpoints at Lo Wu, Man Kam To and She Tau Kok become important channels for land travel to China.