Route Twisk (Chinese: 荃錦公路) is a north–south road in the New Territories of Hong Kong, running between Tsuen Wan in Tsuen Wan District and Shek Kong in Yuen Long District. The road is 11.5 kilometres long. Its northern end joins Kam Tin Road[zh] and Lam Kam Road, while its southern end meets Cheung Pei Shan Road, Tai Ho Road[zh] North and Texaco Road at the Tsuen Kam Interchange. Along the way it crosses sparsely populated areas including Twisk Pass, Shek Kong Barracks[zh] and Tai Mo Shan Country Park. Route Twisk is well known for being narrow and winding, and traffic volumes there have always been comparatively low, but since its completion it has become the most direct road between Shek Kong and Tsuen Wan. At present, apart from vehicles holding a permit to use the road, vehicles exceeding 10 metres in total length may not enter Route Twisk; New Territories taxis may travel along the entire length of Route Twisk, but passengers may only be picked up or set down within Tai Mo Shan Country Park and the sections north of it; picking up or setting down passengers is not permitted on sections to the south.
Plans for a road connecting Tsuen Wan and Yuen Long first appeared in the 1940s, originally as supporting infrastructure for a proposed new airport at Ping Shan. The plan later fell through after the Chinese Communist Party's establishment of government, owing to concerns that aircraft taking off and landing would have to enter Chinese Communist airspace, and construction of the road was cancelled as a result. Later, in 1950, the British Hong Kong garrison, seeking to facilitate the movement of military vehicles and supplies into and out of the New Territories and to carry out defensive works, brought in the Royal Engineers, who had also been building roads in Kenya and the Malay Peninsula, to carry out the military construction works in Hong Kong, building a road along the foothills between Tsuen Wan and Kam Tin. The officer commanding the works at the time was Brigadier H. P. Cavendish. Route Twisk was one of the few concrete roads built using mechanised construction methods at the time; since Hong Kong's roads were then mostly built by manual labour, this became one of Route Twisk's distinguishing features. The road cost around HK$6 million to build at the time. The British military subsequently began building Shek Kong Barracks[zh] along Route Twisk from September 1951.
On 29 June 1953, Route Twisk officially opened to traffic. At first, only military and emergency vehicles were permitted to use the entire road, while other vehicles could only travel on the section south of Chuen Lung. The authorities also regularly dispatched the British Hong Kong garrison to prevent unauthorised civilian vehicles from travelling on the relevant sections. In 1955, the Hong Kong Government began negotiating with the British Hong Kong garrison over opening Route Twisk to civilian vehicles. After several rounds of discussion, the military agreed to hand over Route Twisk to the Hong Kong Government for management, and the road was opened to the public on 25 May 1961. However, the road was not formally named until 25 November 1977. After Route Twisk opened as a public road, Kowloon Motor Bus decided to trial the first-generation Route 26 via Route Twisk, running between Jordan Road Ferry Pier and Yuen Long town centre, which was faster than the first-generation Route 16[zh] via Castle Peak Road.
The English name of Route Twisk is "Route Twisk", which differs from the transliteration "Tsuen Kam Road" normally used for other roads in Hong Kong. According to the official explanation given in the Hong Kong Yearbook[zh], the authorities inserted an "i" between the abbreviations for Tsuen Wan (TW) and Shek Kong (SK), which the road connects, so that the name could be read as a word in English. Others suggest that the department concerned at the time mistook the slash in "TW/SK" for the letter I, resulting in "Route Twisk", an error that has never since been corrected, while another article suggests that the "i" in Twisk stands for "interlink".
Boundary between Tsuen Wan District and Yuen Long District; the district south of the road is Tsuen Wan District, and north of it is Yuen Long District.
9.8
Berwick Road, Butts Road, Wiltshire Road
Each of these access roads is within Shek Kong Barracks[zh]; entry is prohibited without authorisation and offenders may be prosecuted.
Because of the condition of Route Twisk's road surface, the Transport Department requires that all vehicles using the road be no more than 10 metres long. According to Lee Kok-wah, chairman of the Kowloon Motor Bus Staff Rights Union, KMB previously specially modified a batch of MCW Metrobus and Dennis Dart buses to travel up the mountain on Route 51. After that batch of vehicles was retired, the current Enviro 200 Dart single-deck buses were specially ordered to take over the route; these buses must be fitted with a manual retarder, fog lamps and increased horsepower to cope with the demanding driving conditions, but Route 51 experiences crowds of waiting passengers on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays, and the vehicle length restriction also prevents some coaches carrying tourists to Tai Mo Shan from using the road. Such vehicles must hold a permit before entering the road to reach Tai Mo Shan, and some coach drivers have been prosecuted for entering without applying for a permit, which has often caused dissatisfaction within the transport industry. From 29 December 2017, the Transport Department allowed buses of any length to enter the section of Route Twisk south of Tai Mo Shan Road without needing a permit. In November 2021, KMB, coordinated by former Tsuen Wan District Councillor Chiu Yan-loy[zh], sent an 11.3-metre Enviro500 MMC to trial the route. On 18 August 2025, KMB received approval from the Transport Department to operate 11.3-metre Enviro 500 MMC Facelift buses, fitted with manual retarders and front collision-protection frames, on the route from 24 August; all such vehicles have seat belts fitted.
Under the regulations, heavy vehicles must also stop at a bus stop or passing place on the downhill sections (southbound: from Tai Mo Shan Country Park to Muk Min Ha Tsuen; northbound: from Tai Mo Shan Country Park to Shek Kong) to test their braking systems before descending in low gear.
Pedestrian crossing issue near Fu Yung Shan
There is a zebra crossing at the junction of Route Twisk and Fu Yung Shan Road, which is the route that residents of Fu Yung Shan[zh] village and the surrounding area must use to reach urban Tsuen Wan. However, this section of the road has many sharp bends, and combined with vehicles travelling at high speed, this increases the risk of traffic accidents. In August 2016, residents of Fu Yung Shan collected opinions and gathered more than 300 signatures, calling for the zebra crossing on this section to be converted into a pedestrian-activated signal crossing. The Transport Department responded that it was collecting data on the proposal, including pedestrian and vehicle flow and speed, and would also send staff to conduct a site visit with the councillors before making a decision. The Hong Kong Police Force said it would relay the councillors' views to the New Territories South Traffic Division and jointly step up efforts against illegal road racing and non-compliance with traffic rules on the road, in order to prevent accidents.
↑"Quán jǐn zìrán jiàoyù jìng" 荃錦自然教育徑[Route Twisk Nature Trail]. Country Trails (郊野樂行) (in Chinese). Archived from the original on 19 March 2011. Possibly because the route connects Tsuen Wan (Tsuen Wan) and Shek Kong (Shek Kong), whose English abbreviation is "TW/SK", which over time was mistakenly written as "TWISK", a form that has continued to be used to this day.
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