New Territories Travel Guide

Brief Introduction
New Territories is a region in Hong Kong excluding Hong Kong Island, Kowloon and Stonecutters Island. Historically, it is the region described in the Convention for the Extension of Hong Kong Territory. According to that the territories comprise the mainland area north of the Boundary Street of 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 Hong Kong.

Much of the New Territories were, and to a limited extent still are, rural areas. Attempts at modernizing the area were did not become fully committed until the late 1970s, in which many new towns were built to accommodate the overspill from the urbanized areas of Kowloon and Hong Kong Island. Despite rapid development of the new towns which has resulted in a population of over 3 million, the Hong Kong Government confines built-up areas to a few areas and reserves large parts of the region as parkland.