In general, Tsuen Wan is an ageing 'new town' that is beginning to regain its confidence, thanks to an uptick in construction and development. And this is having an invigorating effect on local businesses.

The Tsuen Wan of yesteryear is never far away though - and it's a captivating place. Senior citizens sit contentedly in the park playing go or checkers. Schoolchildren banter in the line for the red-top minibus. The kinetic clutter of mahjong games emanates from elegantly crumbling low-rises as one wanders the teeming streets of this corner of the New Territories. Hawkers ply haberdashery from pavement stalls under the banyan trees. Drying laundry flaps from the high-density housing like Manchu banners. And above it all looms Tai Mo Shan, Hong Kong's highest peak, accessible for hiking, picnicking and generally escaping the urban scrummage.

'Being at the end of the MTR line, Tsuen Wan used to feel like a frontier town,' said Norman Chan, a 47-year-old broker who lived here in the 1970s and frequently returns to see family members. Mr Chan has always been fond of this formerly industrial town. 'I get a surge of feeling for this town whenever I arrive on the MTR. Once outside of the station I see the mountains behind me and my hometown ahead, and it's all I can do to stop yelling: 'Ma! I'm home - put the tsang hong lo bat tong (homemade radish and carrot soup) on the stove!''

Mr Chan has grown up with Tsuen Wan. 'I used to collect insects with my school chums near our old house. Sometime in the early 1990s, a massive building was built there. Then more around. Aside from the public housing, you could see that Tsuen Wan had gone from being a country town to a satellite village. And the kids that might have once gone collecting beetles, now zap aliens on their PSPs.'

Mr Chan believes the town has not lost its charm. 'This is a town of working men and working women getting on with their lives in the old-fashioned way: working, saving, working, going on the odd vacation - more often to Macau than the Maldives. I would say that this town values tradition more than other places I've lived, such as Park Island across the water or New Horizons [near Aberdeen].

'You want to meet Mr Hong Kong? Come here. And if you want to see real Chinese New Year celebrations come here twice. It's authentic. Tell the tourist board!'

Many do come here as visitors, but mainly from the mainland China and in tour groups. They are herded into the Tsuen Wan shopping safari, with flag-waving guides leading them to places such as the famous Chung On Street, where tourists buy gold and jade, low-end cosmetics, herbal mixtures from traditional Chinese medicine outlets, and iPhones from Fortress.

Unlike in the mainland, all can be purchased with a good degree of consumer confidence. Some tours eschew more touristy destinations such as The Peak or the Jumbo Restaurant altogether, making Tsuen Wan a premier destination in its own right for many mainlanders. Even if these cross-border shoppers don't make it as far south as the harbour, Tsuen Wan has its fairly dramatic waterfront, facing a body of water that lies between the town and Tsing Yi Island, and is called Rambler Channel.

The area around this channel was once known as 'Sam Pak Tsin', literally meaning 'three hundred coins' - presumably the toll fare that pirates would collect in order to permit a vessel to proceed through this marine bottleneck.

Compelling evidence of this locality being a hotbed of pirate activity and a kind of seasonal pirate headquarters has been unearthed and examined by archaeological experts of local universities. Indeed, the Hakka name of Tsuen Wan translates as Pirate Bay.

For centuries a modest agricultural town, Tsuen Wan, according to local historian Jason Wordie, used to be a centre of Hong Kong pineapple production. 'Tsuen Wan was locally renowned before the Pacific war for its small sweet pineapples, which grew readily on the steep slopes and sandy coastal soil. Pineapple production has long since disappeared, and the fields replaced with factories, godowns and flyovers.'

During the Japanese occupation, the town provided refuge for several anti-Japanese guerrillas who slipped over the border every now and then, however commerce dropped dramatically during these dark days. But after the war, Tsuen Wan's fortunes picked up swiftly.

For much of the 20th century, Tsuen Wan was a major and vibrant industrial centre, and then in the 1970s it was developed as a new town, with high rises sprouting above the surrounding agricultural allotments and signalling the start of a new, more prosperous era. Since then the population has doubled. And thanks to some progressive town planning, the quality of life has improved markedly.

A network of overhead walkways enables residents to get around the relatively large and sprawling town centre with comparative ease. And if walking up and down concrete steps isn't enough exercise, there's the Wai Tsuen Sports Indoor Games Hall in addition to the Yeung Uk Road Recreation Games Hall.

The Shing Mun Indoor Swimming Pool, is open throughout the year. Other community facilities, also easily accessible and highly regarded by the town's residents, include: the Tsuen Wan Central Library and the Tsuen Wan Town Hall.

Tsuen Wan is also home to several hospitals, notably the Tsuen Wan Adventist Hospital (the only private non-profit hospital in the town), which has been serving the local community since 1964.

A source of local pride is Tsuen Wan Park, which occupies an area of about four hectares and was built at a cost of HK$107 million. Factoring in the coastal location, a maritime theme was adopted for this intriguingly designed local open space. And at different levels and from various vantage points, visitors are afforded spectacular views across Rambler Channel towards Tsing Yi Island and, beyond, the imposing hills of Lantau Island.

Another much-used public space is the Jockey Club Tak Wah Park. Smaller at only 1.63 hectares, it is located in the town centre, and can be reached from the MTR station in roughly a five-minute walk.

A special feature of this lovely urban oasis is the park's use of specially configured (according to Taoist principles) rockeries that use stones imported from scenic Tai Hu County of central eastern China. A replica of an ancestral temple, a camellia garden, a pond-side pavilion, and a 'zigzag' stone bridge can also be found in this leafy spot in the heart of Tsuen Wan.

Sitting here on an autumn afternoon, watching the dragonflies trace elliptical circles with wings that glint gold from the dying sun, I observe an elderly couple - he in a Mao cap, she with a floral sunhat - talk with the gentle cadence of old-timers who have truly found contentment in their dotage. And it occurred to me that, 30 years ago, they may have lived in one of Tsuen Wan's long-gone wooden squatter settlements. And maybe before, they had somehow muddled through all the tumult and the growing pains of the People's Republic. Or maybe they'd been here since the Japanese occupation.

Tsuen Wan's contemplative Tak Wah Park is a place where such thoughts are permitted. And I remind myself that the story of this town is, in many respects, the Hong Kong Story.

Future chapters are ready to be written, but, as with other parts of Hong Kong, our ever-creative developers are finding it hard to resist advertising that portrays uber-cool complexes with vapid-looking Caucasian princesses and Roman columns. Nonetheless, Tsuen Wan is unashamed of its deep Hong Kong roots. And if you decide to relocate here, keep Mr Chan's words in mind and be ready to enjoy plenty of local colour. That's the way the community likes it here.