Beyond Skytopia: an Immersion into Tung Chung's Urban-Rural Symbiotic Network

Before new town development transformed Tung Chung into an airport city, Tung Chung was an agricultural society whose links to the outside world depended on sea routes — a journey to Central once took as long as two hours. Because of this inconvenience, external connections were concentrated around the pier, giving rise to the former Tung Chung market town.

Farmers who resettled here after World War II established the Tung Chung Vegetable Marketing Co-operative in the 1950s. From the late 1950s to the 1960s, infrastructure such as Ma Wan Chung Pier, Tung Chung Road, and Po On Bridge was progressively built, and a community network for selling local produce gradually took shape.

From shallots and vegetables to rice, Tung Chung's produce is a portrait of a generation's way of life. Through archival research, interviews, fieldwork, and interactive experiments, the "Tung Chung, (un)rooted" team traces the food and farming network linking people, sea, and land — sharing and passing on the area's wisdom of urban-rural integration with residents as the new town expands.

The guided tour follows the coastline and Ma Wan Chung Village, walking from today's town centre back to the old market, linking Tung Chung agriculture's past and present.

Photos courtesy of Tung Chung, (un)rooted