According to the Transport Department, green taxis in the New Territories heading to or from Shun Lee Estate have to take Clear Water Bay Road. In Tseung Kwan O, green taxis are only allowed to take Ying Yip Road, Hang Hau Road, Wan Po Road and Shek Kok Road. These route restrictions have some strange ramifications; if you tried to take a green taxi from Hang Hau Station to Tai Po, it would have to detour all the way up and around Sai Kung via Sai Sha Road instead of taking a more direct route through Kwun Tong and Tate’s Cairn Tunnel. According to some experienced drivers, before 1988, Sai Sha Road was not yet connected to Ma On Shan, so green taxis in Sai Kung had no way of leaving the district at all.  

Why aren’t “New Territories taxis” allowed to operate freely throughout the entire New Territories? Why are there green taxi stands outside the green taxi service area? These seemingly contradictory arrangements are closely linked to the historical development of Hong Kong’s taxi system.

Motor vehicles began to appear on Hong Kong’s roads in the early 20th Century. Not long after, some people began offering rides for hire. These can be seen as Hong Kong’s earliest unlicensed taxis, referred to as “white plate cars” (白牌車 baak6 pai4 ce1) in Cantonese. However, due to frequent traffic accidents, the colonial government began to regulate the taxi industry. In 1923, the Kowloon Motor Taxi Company was established, becoming the city’s first formal taxi operator. At the time, taxis could not be flagged down freely on the streets, but had to pick passengers up at one of eight designated taxi stands. 

Before 1964, taxi services were run by companies that employed drivers as staff. However, licensed taxi operators struggled to keep up with rising public demand, so unlicensed taxis filled the gap. Since taxi drivers were generally reluctant to drive an empty car long distances into the New Territories to pick people up, unlicensed ride services became especially prevalent there, with some people converting trucks into minibuses to shuttle passengers to and from urban areas. The government tried to shut down these services with little success, then in 1964 they began to allow individuals and not just companies to obtain taxi licenses through a public tendering process. 

The First Generation of New Territories Taxis: Precursors to the Minibus

In 1959, the Police Force proposed to introduce dedicated taxi services for the New Territories and began recruiting operators. The government stipulated that these taxis could not operate within urban areas except to pick up passengers who were heading to the New Territories. To prevent them from freely picking up and dropping off passengers anywhere in urban areas, they were consigned to a number of designated taxi stands in Kowloon. Any breach of regulations could result in license suspension. 

When New Territories taxis began operating in 1960, they were allowed to carry as many as nine passengers. Operators took advantage of this flexibility to pick up passengers at designated stops such as the Jordan Road Ferry Pier and transport them to the New Territories. By 1963, some had even set up fixed, scheduled routes to and from Tsuen Wan, gradually evolving a business model that was very much like today’s minibuses.  

The transport network was far less robust in those days. During the riots of 1967, when bus services were suspended, nine-seater New Territories taxis seized the opportunity to drive into Kowloon to pick up passengers. The government chose to turn a blind eye. After the unrest was over, the government considered banning the nine-seaters, but after assessing their practical value to society, legalized them instead, paving the way for what would become public light buses (red minibuses). 

The Second Generation of New Territories Taxi: The Birth of the Green Taxi

As transport infrastructure gradually improved, the taxi system was further streamlined. Two years after the 1972 opening of the Hung Hom Cross-Harbour Tunnel, the government merged Hong Kong Island and Kowloon taxis into a single “urban taxi” license type, adopting a standardized red livery with silver roofs. In 1976, the government issued new taxi licenses for the New Territories; these came at a comparatively lower cost, and the taxis were uniformly painted green with white roofs. This established the clear distinction between urban and New Territories taxis that exists to this day. 

Green taxis were introduced with the intention of serving rural and remote areas with limited transport options such as Tuen Mun, Yuen Long, North District, and parts of Sai Kung, to provide residents with point-to-point transportation at lower fares. By the 1970s, new towns such as Sha Tin and Tsuen Wan had a relatively well-established, extensive transport network, becoming seen as extensions of the urban area. The government considered the services provided by urban (red) taxis to be sufficient for these areas, and restricted green taxis with their lower fares from freely picking up passengers there. This arrangement was meant to prevent green taxi drivers from flocking to these busier suburban town centres to the neglect of remoter areas such as rural villages and the northern border region. 

The same rationale applied to Tseung Kwan O. Although geographically part of the New Territories, the government designated it a “satellite town” due to its transformation into a new town and its proximity to Kowloon. Green taxis were therefore restricted from entering its core residential areas to reduce traffic congestion and protect the profits of red taxis. However, access for green taxis was retained on certain existing roads and segments. For instance, today’s Wan Po Road to Shek Kok Road, originally part of Hang Hau Road, remains open to green taxis (the area known as Pak Shing Kok).

Exceptions for Green Taxis

To balance service area restrictions with residents’ needs, the government has allowed green taxis to serve essential destinations outside their permitted zone on the condition that they do not disrupt urban traffic. Drawing from the first-generation New Territories Taxi scheme, green taxis are allowed to access a handful of key urban locations via designated routes. For instance, they can travel along Route Twisk but cannot pick up or drop off passengers along the Tsuen Wan section of the road (e.g. at Chuen Lung Village). 

The government also added New Territories taxi stands at Tsuen Wan, Tsing Yi, and Hang Hau Station for passenger transfers, while also allowing green taxis to travel to the airport, Shenzhen Bay Port, The Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macao Bridge Hong Kong Port, Hong Kong Disneyland, and Sha Tin Racecourse by specified routes.

Among these destinations, Shun Lee Estate in Kwun Tong is unique. When Shun Lee Estate was built in the 1970s, its transport links were still fairly limited. In the early 1980s, green taxi operators pushed to expand their service area from Pik Uk in Clear Water Bay to Ping Shek Estate in Choi Hung, but were refused by the government. Instead, the government designated a route allowing green taxis to travel along New Clear Water Bay Road, Shun Lee Estate Road, Shun King Street and Lee On Road to the Shun Lee Estate taxi stand, making Shun Lee the sole legal “island” for green taxis in Kowloon, though drivers must stick strictly to the route and cannot pick up passengers elsewhere in Kowloon. 

Another notable example is the Prince of Wales Hospital in Sha Tin. As the main acute regional hospital serving the New Territories East Cluster, it was designed to serve patients from Tai Po and North District. Since opening in 1984, green taxis have been permitted to access the hospital ground via designated routes to ensure that residents from the New Territories can get themselves to the hospital at a relatively affordable cost. It is not uncommon for elderly residents of remote villages to share a taxi to go to their medical appointments. Tseung Kwan O Hospital, which opened in 1999, is under a similar arrangement.

Conclusion

At first, the green taxi operating scheme might appear contradictory and confusing. However, when considering their historical context, they reflect the influence of multiple waves of transport planning.

The evolution from first-generation New Territories taxis to minibuses, and then to second-generation green taxis meant to serve remote and rural areas, illustrates a “divide and conquer” planning approach. This strategy avoided over-concentration of resources in busy urban centers and ensured mobility for village communities.

Shun Lee Estate’s “green taxi desert island” in Kowloon, along with scattered New Territories taxi stands in the city, represent pragmatic loopholes balancing efficiency and equity. In a time when transportation networks were underdeveloped, these “designated routes” and “boundary penetrations” addressed connectivity challenges for residents in outlying areas, indirectly sketching out the trajectory of each new town’s evolution from rural village to urban hub. 

References

Hung Wing-tat and Lau Kwok-wai. “Hunting Dreams in Hong Kong: The Legacy of the Taxi Industry (獵夢香港：的士業的傳承)”, 2020, Hong Kong: Chung Hwa Book Co. (HK) Ltd.

〈新界的士開辦前奏 先行警告小型巴士〉(“Prelude to New Territories Taxis Launch: Warning Minibuses First”), Wah Kiu Yat Po, December 25, 1959.

〈首批新界的士今日開始行走〉(“First Batch of New Territories Taxis Start Operating Today”), Wah Kiu Yat Po, October 27, 1960.

〈首批新界的士牌照 二百五輛八月發出〉(“First Batch of New Territories Taxi Licenses: 250 Vehicles to be Issued in August”), The Kung Sheung Daily News, July 25, 1976.

〈西貢區新界的士 範圍擴至井欄樹〉(“Sai Kung New Territories Taxi Area Extended to Tseng Lan Shue”), The Kung Sheung Daily News, March 26, 1983.

〈放寬新界的士行駛界限〉(“Relaxation of New Territories Taxi Servicing Boundaries”), The Kung Sheung Daily News, February 1, 1984.