Sham Tseng sits between Ting Kau and Tsing Lung Tau on the western edge of the New Territories, in Tsuen Wan District. At the 1911 census it held just 72 people, 32 of them male. The landscape that surrounds it — the Ma Wan Channel, the suspension cable of the Tsing Ma Bridge curving overhead, the forested ridgelines of the hinterland — was, from the 1990s onward, exactly what private housing developers wanted. Residents of estates like Lido Garden, Dragonette, Golden Villa, Ocean Pointe, and Bellagio look out over one of Hong Kong's more dramatic built views: a bridge carrying road and rail traffic to the airport, framed by water and hills. Sham Tseng's original villages — Sham Tseng Village, Sham Tseng East Village, Sham Tseng Kau Tsuen, Sham Tseng San Tsuen, Sham Tseng West Village — persist alongside and beneath these newer estates.

The San Miguel Brewery Hong Kong at Sham Tseng was a genuine industrial presence for more than six decades. Its origins in 1933 as Hong Kong Brewers and Distillers Ltd, under the Parsi industrialist JH Ruttonjee, connect it to a broader story of Hong Kong's interwar commercial development. San Miguel Corporation's acquisition in 1948 brought Philippine capital into the local brewing industry and kept Sham Tseng's waterfront smelling of malt and hops for another half-century. When the brewery moved to Yuen Long Industrial Estate in 1996, it left behind a large cleared site on the coastal edge of the village. Bellagio now stands there — a private development with its own mall and sweeping water views. The brewery is gone; its memory survives mostly in the knowledge that the estate sits on its foundations.

Sham Tseng's fame as a roast goose destination is not accidental. Hong Kong's roast goose tradition — geese seasoned, dried, and roasted in clay ovens over high heat until the skin crisps and the fat renders — requires skill, quality birds, and the kind of steady custom that sustains restaurants over years. Sham Tseng's restaurants have had all three. The South China Morning Post has noted that at least one restaurant there had been serving roast goose for more than 60 years, maintaining techniques passed through families. The dish is a pilgrimage food: people travel specifically for it, which is a mark of genuine local distinction in a city where excellent food is everywhere and mediocre food does not long survive.

The coastline around Sham Tseng offers more than a view. Approach Beach, Anglers' Beach, the Gemini Beaches, Hoi Mei Wan Beach, and — in nearby Ting Kau — Casam Beach and Lido Beach and Ting Kau Beach provide swimming that is accessible without the crowds of the more central Hong Kong beaches. Dragon Bay in Tsing Lung Tau is privately owned. The Sham Tseng Temporary Market, a local produce market under the Sham Tseng Bridge flyover, serves the area's residents with fresh goods. Since the brewery closed and its swimming access was effectively privatised into residential pools, more residents use the pools within their own housing complexes. The public beaches and the market are what remain open to everyone — including, every weekend, those who come for the goose.