Sai Kung District is one of the 18 districts of Hong Kong. The district comprises the southern half of the Sai Kung Peninsula, the Clear Water Bay Peninsula in the New Territories and a strip of land to the east of Kowloon. Areas in the district include Sai Kung Town, Hong Kong UNESCO Global Geopark, Tseung Kwan O and over 70 islands of different sizes. The administrative centre had been located in Sai Kung Town until the Sai Kung District Office was relocated to Tseung Kwan O recently. The district's population is concentrated in Tseung Kwan O, as of 2011. In 2011, the district was the third youngest district, with a median age of 39.3. Known as the "back garden of Hong Kong", Sai Kung has been able to retain its natural scenery. Many traditional customs and cultures are still retained in the rural villages.
History
The modern geopolitical entity of Sai Kung District was formed after World War II. Settlements existed in the area prior to the signing of the Convention for the Extension of Hong Kong Territory, which ceded the area to the colony of Hong Kong from the Qing Empire in 1898. Those ceded areas are now collectively known as the New Territories and New Kowloon.
According to Professor , unlike other villages of the New Territories, villages in Sai Kung did not form any yeuk (), a kind of inter-village alliances in the 19th century in the Qing dynasty.
Under the colonial rule, villages in Sai Kung were grouped under Tung Yeuk (also known as Tung Hoi Yeuk; ) in 1898.
Soon after, the district office of New Territories was established. The New Territories was divided into Northern and Southern District (both not the same as the modern day districts of HK) and New Kowloon in the 1920s. The Southern District was under further reform since 1957.
After the end of World War II (the author did not state the exact year, however), the New Territories was divided into 8 sub-divisions, one of which was named after Sai Kung. Tsuen Wan District Officer was established in 1959
By 1969, the New Territories Administration had 7 district offices, of which one was named after Sai Kung. Although Sai Kung locals, as well as other rural villages of the New Territories, already established their chambers and voting representatives to Heung Yee Kuk, an advisory body to the colonial government, as early as the 1930s. In a larger scale of history, due to the signing of the Sino-British Joint Declaration in 1984, which would hand over the whole colony to the People's Republic of China, the colonial government had made several political reforms on local politics.
A water route from the northern Sai Kung Peninsula to Tai Po existed at least since the Qing dynasty. For this historical and other reasons, the northern portion of the Sai Kung Peninsula belongs to the Tai Po District, but not part of Sai Kung District.
Sai Kung was a local industrial centre before the 1900s. For example, in Sheung Yu (), villagers produced mortar and fertiliser from their own lime kiln. Villages also scattered on the islands of Port Shelter, Rocky Harbour, on the Sai Kung Peninsula, on the Clear Water Bay Peninsula as well as other land areas of the District. It had a population of 461,864 in 2016 by-census, Where a destination is accessible by public transport, it is usually served via a network of bus routes, public light buses (i.e. minibuses) and taxis.
Education
The education in the Sai Kung District is administrated by the Education Bureau and not administrated by Sai Kung District Office. The latter is a division of Home Affairs Department instead. The Education Bureau has its own zoning scheme. For example, Primary One Admission School Net no.95, covers the whole Sai Kung District, as well as Sai Kung North which is part of Tai Po District.
The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, one of the eight publicly funded tertiary institutions in Hong Kong, is located in Clear Water Bay Road, Sai Kung District.
The Hong Kong Institute of Vocational Education has in Tiu Keng Leng, Tseung Kwan O. The Hong Kong Design Institute is next to the IVE Tiu Keng Leng campus.
Hong Kong Public Libraries operates Sai Kung, Tiu Keng Leng, and Tseung Kwan O libraries.
Miscellaneous
- The northern half of Sai Kung Peninsula belongs to nearby Tai Po District, and not Sai Kung District. This is because communities in the northern half of Sai Kung Peninsula used to be more connected to Tai Po via kai-to sea transport before roads were built leading into this area in the 20th century.
- Coincidentally, the Chinese characters "西貢" for Sai Kung are also the Vietnamese Chu nom characters for the name Saigon (now called Ho Chi Minh City), a major city in Vietnam. However, there is also a street called Saigon Street (西貢街) named after the Vietnamese city, not Sai Kung.
Media
Sai Kung District is served by Sai Kung Magazine, a free-distribution English language monthly magazine and the community website Saikung.com. The magazine covers the areas of Sai Kung Town, Clear Water Bay, Pak Sha Wan and Ma On Shan.
See also
- Beaches of Hong Kong
- Conservation in Hong Kong
- List of places in Hong Kong