Tuen Mun is situated in the western part of Hong Kong on the eastern side of the Pearl River estuary and boasts a wealth of famous mountains and ancient temples. The area was long a centre of agriculture, fishery, commerce and industry as well as a traffic hub for local and overseas merchants and travellers, and its villages and towns enjoy a long history. Historical documentation from the Tang dynasty shows that Tuen Mun also hosted military garrisons, as it commanded a key position for coastal defence.
Local and overseas academics first carried out archaeological investigations in the area as early as the 1920s and 1930s, discovering a number of prehistoric sites in So Kwun Wat, Lung Kwu Chau and Castle Peak Bay. The Hong Kong Archaeological Society later conducted numerous surveys and sub-surface investigations, and, following the enactment of the Antiquities and Monuments Ordinance in 1976, the AMO commissioned two territory-wide archaeological surveys, both of which resulted in the discovery of various sites of potential archaeological significance in Tuen Mun. In the past years, the AMO conducted further investigations and rescue excavations in response to the infrastructure works in the area, and these efforts have yielded many cultural remains from the Neolithic period, the Bronze Age and the Han, Tang, Song, Ming and Qing dynasties.