History
In the Tang Dynasty, a navy town, Tuen Mun Tsang (屯門鎮) was established in Nam Tau, which lies across Deep Bay. Tuen Mun and the rest of Hong Kong was under its protection.
A major clan, To (陶), brought the name Tuen Mun to the area. They migrated from Jiangxi and established a village Tuen Mun Tsuen (屯門村) late in the Yuan Dynasty. As more and more villages were established, the village was renamed to Tuen Mun Tai Tsuen (屯門大村), which means the largest village. As yet more villages were established, a market town of Tuen Mun Hui (屯門墟) (now Tuen Mun Kau Hui) was established. This town lies where present-day Tuen Mun Kau Hui is situated.
Portuguese settlers had occupied the town in 1514 and were expelled by the Ming Dynasty navy in 1521. This battle is known as Battle of Tamao (the Portuguese name for Tuen Mun). A year later a second encounter was fought (Second Battle of Tamao), the Ming were victorious again.
Tuen Mun remained an important town of coastal defence until the start of British rule in 1898. When the British took over the New Territories from the Qing government in this year, the area was renamed Castle Peak, and Tuen Mun Hui to Tsing Shan Hui (青山墟) or Castle Peak Hui. The name Tuen Mun, however, continued to be used by those living in the area.
In 1965, a "Castle Peak New Town" was planned. It was later renamed to Tuen Mun New Town and implemented from 1970 and many buildings are on the reclamation on the Castle Peak Bay. Its name was officially changed back to Tuen Mun in 1972.
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Famous quotes containing the word history:
“If man is reduced to being nothing but a character in history, he has no other choice but to subside into the sound and fury of a completely irrational history or to endow history with the form of human reason.”
—Albert Camus (1913–1960)
“[Men say:] “Don’t you know that we are your natural protectors?” But what is a woman afraid of on a lonely road after dark? The bears and wolves are all gone; there is nothing to be afraid of now but our natural protectors.”
—Frances A. Griffin, U.S. suffragist. As quoted in History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 4, ch. 19, by Susan B. Anthony and Ida Husted Harper (1902)
“What is most interesting and valuable in it, however, is not the materials for the history of Pontiac, or Braddock, or the Northwest, which it furnishes; not the annals of the country, but the natural facts, or perennials, which are ever without date. When out of history the truth shall be extracted, it will have shed its dates like withered leaves.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)