Located just 11km north of Tsim Sha Tsui, Sha Tin and its surrounding attractions are some of the most-easily visited areas of the New Territories. Simply jump aboard the Kowloon-Canton Railway (KCR) line and get off at Sha Tin station. The main sights here include several temples, a traditional walled village, pretty mountain trails and the second of Hong Kong' horse-racing tracks. 

Once a predominantly agricultural region - its name in Chinese means 'sandy field' - Sha Tin is now almost entirely urban, its population around 700,000 and rising. Almost immediately opposite the station lies the New Town Plaza, a vast shopping and entertainment complex that teems with people and provides a graphic insight into how daily life is lived in much of the New Territories. The big draw here, apart from the shops and restaurants, is the central fountain, which periodically erupts in a display of lights, water sprays and other special effects.
A few minutes' walk north of the station lies the Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery (Man Fat Tze), the region's major attraction. 

Built in 1950, the monastery is reached through landscaped gardens via either escalators or some 400 steps. The main monastery contains three large statues of Lord Buddha and around 12,800 smaller statuettes, each depicting Lord Buddha in a slightly different pose. Several smaller temples complete the monastery complex, including one that contains the gilded and preserved body of Yuet Kai, the founding monk, who died in 1965. Outstanding views over Sha Tin are available from the temple terraces and adjacent pagoda: try to pick out the Amah Rock across the Sha Tin Valley, which legend claims is a young wife and her baby turned to stone by the gods. 

Walk or take a taxi about a kilometre south of the KCR station and you come to Tsang Tai Uk (literally 'Tsang's Big House'), a well-preserved 19th-century fortified village built by the Tsang clan, a handful of whose descendants live here to this day. Typical of traditional villages found across Guangdong (Canton) province, TsangTai Uk consists of four rows and two side columns of houses built around a central countyard, with watch towers standing guard at its four corners. 

Take a taxi or the KCR line one station south to Tai Wai and you can visit the Taoist Che Kung Temple, dedicated to a Song Dynasty (960-1279) general who suppressed a revolt in southern China and was later deified. Travel a couple of stations the other way, to the Racecourse Station, and you can visit the 85,000 capacity Sha Tin Racecourse, one of the world's most modern and sophisticated racetracks.