From a distance, on a sunny day, the towers of Tin Shui Wai look like any other New Territories estate. The symmetrical blocks of apartments march off, row after row, across what 20 years ago were shallow fish ponds. But get to the middle of town and there's nothing there: it's soulless. There's a park, but are a quarter of a million mostly unemployed people on public assistance going to spend every day in a 14-hectare park?
Walk around; the argument that Tin Shui Wai was created as a dumping ground for unwanted human beings grows stronger. There is little joy on offer.
My ambition is to herd Hong Kong's 60 lawmakers onto a fleet of buses, along with social workers, town planners, land developers and government policymakers, then take them on a forced march through Tin Shui Wai. The guides would be single working mothers striving desperately to keep their families together and their sons out of jail; workers who for years have not found a meaningful job; and teachers in local schools who urge parents to try to get their children educated anywhere else.
We're breeding young people there with a massive sense of discontent, a feeling that they are deprived of the benefits of the glittering society they see on television. This social mire has been well reported. Everyone knows about it. Nobody seems to know how to resolve it, but some people are trying. Stephen Chu Ying-leuk, the general manager of Tin Shui Wai's Harbour Plaza Resort City, has with the Hong Kong Hotels Association held seminars for young people explaining opportunities in the tourism industry. 'I'm determined to do something to help the community and alleviate this dreadful public image,' he says.
Trying to explain the deep-set social problems in this troubled community is difficult. Author Eva Chan Sik-chi has done an excellent job with her book Voice of Women From Tin Shui Wai. Lee Cheuk-yan, a politician who knows the area and residents well, says the book shows the daily struggle and inner strengths of residents. 'People should really know what life is like there,' Mr Lee says.
Tang Yin-lee, executive director of the Tin Shui Wai training centre, says everyone knows the negatives about Tin Shui Wai; there are positive solutions to these problems, she claims. 'Residents do not dwell on the negative, so why should others?' she says. 'Their strength is admirable.'