Lonely Tung Chung fights for a better life

Tung Chung was not designed for human beings. This is a common complaint from the area's poorer residents, who suffer most from the lack of amenities in the isolated new town.

"It's like whoever planned the town decided that all people need are flats to live in, transport to their workplace, and that's it," said Lau Sze-ki, a higher diploma design student at Polytechnic University. "The truth is, we are not just workers, but people who would like to do some shopping, go to a good cafe, find a room or library for studying, or a place for a good meal with the family … we are not working robots."

The community, on the northern coast of Lantau island, is nearly all residential, and notorious for its distant location and its inhabitants' lack of access to the most basic of amenities. Those in public housing estates remain trapped by hefty transport costs in an existence they find difficult to escape.

If Tung Chung in general is considered isolated, Yat Tung Estate is an even lonelier place. The public estate, a five-minute bus rise from the MTR station, houses about half of Tung Chung's 80,000 population. What particularly sets it apart is that up to 40 per cent of its inhabitants are under 18. These youngsters grow up without many of the amenities their urban counterparts have access to, and perennially face the spectre of delinquency and crime.

Some have refused to give up hopes of one day bringing change to the only neighbourhood they have ever known, however. Among them is Lau, 22, who started a youth organisation a year ago dedicated to providing the neighbourhood's children with summer programmes, games and art classes - experiences she said she "never had when I was growing up".

Lau said: "We've grown up here. We may not have had the opportunities children living outside may have and we may not even get to travel out of Tung Chung that much, but we only hope our neighbourhood will improve.