It was demolished in 1993/94, but the Kowloon Walled City is remembered by its residents, and by students of this unique 'urban archipelago'. Wikipedia says of it:
Kowloon Walled City was a densely populated, largely ungoverned settlement in Kowloon, Hong Kong. Originally a Chinese military fort, the Walled City became an enclave after the New Territories were leased to Britain in 1898. Its population increased dramatically following the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong during World War II. In 1987, the Walled City contained 33,000 residents within its 6.5 acre borders. From the 1950s to the 1970s, it was controlled by Triads and had high rates of prostitution, gambling, and drug use.
The Daily Mail has published a series of photographs, recording what life in the Walled City was like. It reports:
Once thought to be the most densely populated place on Earth, with 50,000 people crammed into only a few blocks, these fascinating pictures give a rare insight into the lives of those who lived Kowloon Walled City.
Taken by Canadian photographer Greg Girard in collaboration with Ian Lamboth the pair spent five years familiarising themselves with the notorious Chinese city before it was demolished in 1992.
The city was a phenomenon with 33,000 families and businesses living in more than 300 interconnected high-rise buildings, all constructed without contributions from a single architect.
Ungoverned by Health and Safety regulations, alleyways dripped and the maze of dark corridors covered one square block near the end of the runway at Kai Tak Airport.
By the early 1980s it was notorious for brothels, casinos, cocaine parlours and opium dens. It was also famous for food courts which would serve up dog meat and had a number of unscrupulous dentists who could escape prosecution if anything went wrong with their patients.
The city eventually became the focus of a diplomatic crisis with both Britain and China refusing to take responsibility.
Despite it being a hotbed of crime many of its inhabitants went about their lives in relative peace with children playing on the rooftops and those living in the upper levels seeking refuge high above the city.
There's more at the link, including many more (and much larger) photographs. Highly recommended as a piece of urban history.
Peter
This was one of the areas that was Offlimits to us while we were visiting Hong Kong during the 1970's.
ReplyDeleteOf course I had to pull shore duty 12 hour period staring with the night shift at 1700 to 0500 the next morning.
So the office got a call around 0200 to come to this place and pick up a body of a sailor that was found on the roof tops of the Kowloon Walled City. To say the least it was not pertty. It was my second experence with a dead body, so I was not in the best of moods for the rest of the liberty we had in Hong Kong. Glad those days are over for me.