Few places in the New Territories have changed as much as Sha Tin over the past 30 years. The 'sandy fields' of its name have disappeared under acres of reclamation, but some of the old town still survives, hidden in plain sight right next to the former Kowloon-Canton Railway line. If you're shopping at Home Square, you can easily visit one or two of these local attractions.
As you leave Sha Tin MTR station by Exit B, take a look to your left over the edge of the walkway. There sits the old Sha Tin Rural Committee building, facing the railway line as it has done for decades, though the concourse has since been elevated high above it. The ramp delivers you onto the square of Pai Tau Village. You can stop to eat at Wong's Kitchen (tel. 2601 3218), which serves up all the usual Cantonese dishes and has an English menu.
A winding path leads up from the village, past sprawling and ramshackle houses, into a valley which contains the area's best-known attraction: the 10,000 Buddhas Monastery (open 9am-5.30pm). It undersells itself - there are in fact more than 12,000 miniature Buddha figures lining the walls. Some of the colourful Buddhist-themed statues recall the imagery of the Tiger Balm Gardens. The preserved and gilded body of the founding monk, Yuet Kai, is rather ghoulishly on display in a glass case, and there's a pagoda which is lit beautifully in the evenings. A vegetarian restaurant is open in the daytime.
The valley is also home to the Wing Wo bee farm, one of Hong Kong's only apiaries, which welcomes visitors and sells its own honey.
There are two routes back downhill from the monastery. If you take the other set of steps down, you'll be flanked most of the way by dozens of golden statues of monks, each different from the last.
Tourists looking for the 10,000 Buddhas Monastery often stumble instead into Po Fook Hill, directly behind the government offices. It's an easy mistake to make, as the compound stretches up the hillside and also contains a pagoda, but it is simply a memorial garden. The gardens do contain one item of interest: a one-cabin funicular railway which operates in the same manner as the Peak Tram.