Before 1898,most of the important roads of the New Territories villages led to the local markets,or else went from market to market.These roads were paved with stone slabs.After the British lease,the Tai Po Road began to be built linking the eastern New Territo-ries and Kowloon,together with the Castle Peak Road linking Kowloon and the western New Territories, theus making a road network serving the eastern and western parts of the New Territories.The opening of the Kowloon-Canton Railway in 1911 had a huge influence on communications between the Kowloon urban area and the northern and southern parts of the New Territories.

From the later 1950s,the New Territories began to be developed in response to the pressure to resettle urban residents and to the need to find land as sites for industry.The first area to be devel-oped was Tsuen Wan,close to the urban area,which was developed in the 1960s as a Satellite Town on the Kwun Tong model.This Satellite Town was a town designed to solve the work and liveli-hood problems of city-centre residents.The second phase of devel-opment took place in the 1970s,and included the development of Sha Ti,Tuen Mun,and Yuen Long,Tai Po,Fan Ling,and Sheung Shui.At this period the name of these development areas was changed to New Towns,to recognise the self-sufficient,balanced development standards now adopted. The third period of development,in the mid 1980s,consisted of Ma On Shan and Tseung Kwan O.At this period,the authorities recognised that the New Towns could not achieve the self-sufficiency previously aimed at,and reverted to the previous strategy of concentrating develop-ment around the Harbour.Because of this,this period saw greatattention being paid to the balanced development of the New Towns,to ensure the effective improvement of the road system,and the control of public transport fares and so on.

In fact,from the 1970s to today,there has been a steady develop-ment of a major road network in the New Territories,with main roads having been built throughout the region,a fact which must be recognised.These main roads include(1)Route One,from Aberdeen to the border at the Lok Ma Chau Crossing-Point in the northern New Territories;(2)Route Two,from the kowloon Bay Reclamation to the border at Man Kam To;(3)Route Three,from the West Kowloon Expressway to Au Tau in Yuen Long;(4)Route Four,from Ching Cheung Road to Tseung Kwan O;(5)Route Five,from Tsuen Wan to Sha Tin-this is part of the New Territo-ries Circular Highway system;(6)Route Six,from the Eastern Harbour Crossing to the Tolo Highway;(7)Routes Seven and Eight(on Hong Kong Island);(8)Route Nine (under planning),from Cheung Sha Wan to Sha Tin;and(9)Route Ten(under planning),from North Lantau to Deep Bay,as part of the cross-border traffic scheme for Shekou in Shenzhen.