The Last Frontier

Hong Kong doesn’t have a wild west, but our equally wild and empty equivalent is the “frontier zone,” or “closed area” as it’s sometimes called – 2,800 hectares against the Chinese border, long closed off to the public. The area – including Sha Tau Kok, Lo Wu and Lok Ma Chau – was closed off 56 years ago as a kind of “demilitarized zone” between Hong Kong and China. It's a strange sight: the frontier zone is mostly rural, but it rubs shoulders with the skyscrapers of Shenzhen, one of China’s fastest growing cities.

This arrangement hasn’t made the indigenous villagers who live there happy. Few visitors mean little business, and most villagers have moved beyond the boundary to make a living in Hong Kong. In the words of Sha Tau Kok district councilor Wan Wo-fai, “This is a land of no hope.”

But hope may be rekindled – the government released a plan last year to open up 2,000 hectares of the area. A 30-month study on what to do with the land has started, and the gates to the closed area will be opened in 2010.

The planning department is still deciding what to do with the frontier (and they want your opinion), but what’s there already? Well, thanks to the lack of development, the place is full of historical buildings, centuries-old villages and some of Hong Kong’s most spectacular environmental treasures. Here are a few.

01/ MacIntosh “Cathedrals”

The frontier is literally Hong Kong's “window into China.” During the Chinese civil war in 1948, the situation at the border was tense, and then-police commissioner Duncan MacIntosh built seven concrete forts at the border to keep an eye on the Shenzhen River, which marks the border. The forts – nicknamed “MacIntosh Cathedrals” – are still used as police lookouts, and have been classified grade-II historical buildings.

02/ Chung Ying Street and San Lau Street