The Kowloon Walled City.
Wikipedia link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kowloon_Walled_CityPicture a plot of land 100 meters by 200m (about the size of 3 football stadiums) in the centre of a big city like London (Kowloon, Hong Kong in this case) which is made of solid building with only tiny alleys to manavigate through not even big enough for cars, this is a place run by criminals and out of bounds to anyone law related(police, tax collectors) despite being centered in a highly populated city. In this little city drugs, prostitution, live sex shows and basically anything illegal goes on. Even the buildings 14 stories tall (which were only limited to 14 floors due to the nearby airport) stood with no regard to planning permission, and without the knowledge of an architect. It's population was 50,000 at it's highest, which to me is the most astonishing fact about it.
What would this place look like from above? Like this:
This is the result of what the British government and Chinese missunderstandings caused. A tiny, mini city where the Police have no rule over what happens and the Triads are in charge, or should I say were in charge, as unfortnuately this maze of alleys, paths and 14 story buildings was evacuated in 1991 and destroyed in 1993. What amazes me is that this type of place existed while I was alive and I never heard of it until it was gone!
But seriously, what is so special about this place? I even had to ask myself, what shocks me, is that despite no police could enter and run the area, 50,000 people lived in this tiny plot of land. A part of land no bigger than modest US shopping mall had that many people living in it. Buildings 14 floors high stood with no regard to planning permission, the entire complex linked up through hundreds of paths, cracks and alleys with no sunlight ever reaching the insides, resulting in light bulbs as the only form of light, hundreds of drug factories, as well as legal food/plastic/rubber factories existed in the place, most people didnt even need to leave the city as all they needed was there. If anything there's certain foods made in the wall city that people from the outside city would come to buy, there was a recipe of a sausage that was made in there and after the city's destruction, the sausage dissapeared and was never sold to this day. kind of funny.
The buildings were built floor by floor with no blueprints, just like houses stacked on top of each other and built so close together that they were either touching the next building or an alley no bigger than a meter or 2 separated them, infact, they were so close you could make your way across the whole city without even touching the ground level, just jumping the roof tops. Most building were being supported up by the one standing next to it! A story about a postman doing his daily rounds there mentioned how he would make his way down the roofs 'till he got to the ground without ever using the indoor stairways, in a way it was like a paradise for curious, troublemaking kids.
This is a rare photo from a roof on the edge of the city, as you can see the edge to the left. Rent is much lower in the Wall city than in the outer city, a reason for the high population. The apartments on the cities edge would even feth much lower than a one in the main Kowloon city. Even the water and electrical supplies were stolen from the main Kowloon city, which resulted in dripping pipes and wires all over the place and down every alleyway, creating a huge fire hazard. Small fires did break out occasionally, the kids would be happy, as for a short while it created an area for them to play in untill it got built on, space was very precious in this small place.
This is a 'street' inside the walled city, as you can see the only form of light is by fluorecent lightbulbs, as the buildings were so close togther and clogged up with trash being held up by wire metal nets on higher floors, sunlight couldn't reach the insides, a man who entered now and again said how the main colours you mostly saw were black and white as the only source of light was the bulbs, plus the smell of the place was disgusting, with the fumes of opium, heroin, fish and human piss and shit all lingering around. This is cos people just threw waste out the windows falling to the ground level, which in most of the city was not able to use as the clogging up and waste was too much, most walkways go above street level up little stairways and stuff where blockages were.
From the outside the place looked like some type of comic book style slum with buildings stuck together, kind of looking like cars from the scrap yard stacked on top of another to make the tall building, the dodgy building plans left windows unaligned, the silouette of the shape wasn't perfect and it just looked like one huge building merged into 1. Like a big labrynthwith corridors and paths so complex that outsiders would not enter in fear of becoming lost.
Free and open to the public, no actual barriers blocking the hundreds of entrances and exits, anyone could enter,its said anyone European would never been seen again once they entered unless floating dead in the gutter leaving the city. Since no police entered the place, wanted criminals lived there, with the option of walking freely out into the outer city and returning there whenever, pure craziness, no wonder it had to get torn down and replaced with a memorial park.
Of course to everyone who didnt live there it was the worst possible type of slum that ever existed, to the people who lived there, they cherished it and have tearful memories of it being gone, to them, a place full of unliscenced dentists and doctors, and criminalswas actually a good place to live nd the crime rate was even lower than in the actual city surrounding it. To certain others the whole city is a piece of art that should have been preserved as a kind of museum to be explored through, although health & safety laws would never allow it, it would have been nice to leave it there so people can get a proper feel of the cramped conditions and how people lived.
Amazingly there is 1 (and I mean only one) 10 minute clip of a man with a hidden camcorder in a bag who circles the city edge and then walks through one of the alleys straight through to the opposite end, this is the only known online footage of a normal person entering the ghetto while people were still living there and going about their business, it was filmed in 1990, 3 years before the demolition.
YouTube - Kowloon Walled City, Hong Kong
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSnvqBhWUOcAlso, if you have seen the Jean Claud Van Dam film 'Bloodsport', you might have never known a scene was actually shot in the wall city, this is much clearer than the shaking bag clip as it's a DVD, its real too, they did it when it was fully evacuated and safe, notice the Chinese guy who leads them in talking about the wall city just before they enter, he gives us a 2 second history lesson about the no-go area.
YouTube - Kowloon Walled City (bloodsport)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEo6ogAnoZ8The last footage you'd see would be in a Jackie Chan film called 'Crime Story, filmed in 1993 (the year of its demolision), certain scenes were shot in the wall city, and also, real footage of buildings exploding was used as naturally, the place was getting knocked down anyway, so what an excuse to use real buildings for real authenticity.
Other references to the walled city are in Shenmue 2 on DC and XBOX, the second location you play in is based on Kowloon Wall city, minus the heroin and hookers, the game makes quite a good recreation, especially the way most buildings link up on the inside as they really did.
Another video game called Stranglehold with John Woo on the PS3/360 features the walled city in the level called Slums of Kowloon, it's quite a good game too, you can download the demo for free from the PS store online. The featured level isn't 'Slums of Kowloon', but it still based in the Kowloon area and is still very similar to the walled city, check it out.
If anyone goes on Google Earth you can see how it looks now, its just a park mind you, but you'd get a good idea of the scale and size of the place, and think how 50,000 people fitted in there! Just search for 'Kowloon walled city park' and it should take you directly there.
This article I'm about topost is from the LA Times and was printedin 1991, 2 years before the walled city got demolished.
By CHRISTINE COURTNEY, SPECIAL TO THE TIMES
October 15, 1991
HONG KONG — "I live here. I work here. It is my home. But now I must go and leave my world behind," said Cheung Muk-ching, a 66-year-old shop owner residing deep within the labyrinthine Walled City just north of Hong Kong's international airport.
Cheung's neighborhood is a monument to man's ability to survive in adverse surroundings. The Walled City--still called that even though Japanese occupiers pulled down the boundary walls during World War II--is one of the more densely populated tenement districts on Earth. The Chinese call it Hak Nam , the "City of Darkness," and Cheung, who has lived here for more than 40 years, is an expert guide.
Here, in a filthy, dingy room, he talks to two chefs clad only in shorts and sandals while they prepare an order of bite-size custard pies for a local bakery. There, in the front window of an unlicensed dentist's shop, he laughingly points to a display of ready-to-wear dentures. Turn a corner and an oversized rat darts through the maze of dark, damp passageways. Cheung throws an empty bottle at it before it squeezes through a hole and plunges into the open sewers below. The stench of human waste and rotting garbage is overwhelming.
The alleys of the Walled City are so narrow that no vehicles can enter them. Many of the buildings lean into each other or they would tumble over. Small shops and factories with ancient machinery, making everything from plastic ornaments to noodles, line the narrow streets, as do dark stairways that lead up to the apartments. Sunlight reaches only a few areas.
For all its squalor, Cheung would like to stay in the Walled City. But in less than a year, that will no longer be possible. The Hong Kong government is expected to complete the fourth and final phase of a systematic clearance scheme next June. After all the residents are gone, the neighborhood is to be leveled and the seven-acre site--about the size of a modest U.S. shopping mall--converted into a public park.
Seventy percent of the Walled City's 30,000 inhabitants have already moved out and been compensated. Of the 10,000 who remain, 120--including Cheung--have refused to move, and as the June, 1992, deadline approaches, there may be more who will try to defy the government plan.
"The government's compensation is not enough to start a new life outside of the Walled City," Cheung said. "Besides, I'm too old to start another business. I refuse to be forced out of my home."
The decision to implement the massive urban renewal project came by way of secret talks between the Chinese and the British governments more than three years ago. It is part of preparations to return the British colony to Chinese sovereignty in 1997.
Philip Chok, Hong Kong's deputy secretary for home affairs and overseer of the city's clearance plan, said the Walled City will soon be relegated to the place it deserves--in the history books.
"It is very much to the benefit of Hong Kong that we do something about the Walled City, which really is a slum," Chok said. Conditions there, he added, "are very much an environmental and safety hazard." He characterized as very favorable the government's proffered compensation package to residents, which is valued at $300 million.
Choi Wing-kwai is a reformed drug dealer familiar with the Walled City's underside. "I left southern China for Hong Kong in 1954 to enter the business of selling opium and heroin in the Walled City. The opium dens have gone, but the heroin addicts remain. Although I don't sell drugs anymore, I know addicts seek protection within the city," Choi said.
Added a younger drug dealer who grew up in the Walled City: "Most of the addicts think they will be able to receive rehousing compensation from the government but continue to live here. They don't understand what is about to happen to them."
In addition to holdouts among some longtime residents, officials are running into resistance from more than 120 unlicensed doctors and dentists who hang their shingles in the Walled City.
The government said it will not allow unlicensed medics to practice outside the Walled City because they would lower medical standards in the territory. So accepting the government's buyout offer would mean going out of business for people like Chan Po-cheng, an unlicensed dentist from Guangdong province in southeastern China. "I am too old to take the licensing exam," complained Chan, 50. "It is a shame for me lose my practice after serving the community for more than 20 years."
But Chok said the government's terms are non-negotiable.
And for many, like Suen Mai-lan, 38, the demise of Hak Nam is a chance to bury a painful past. Suen has just accepted the government's terms and is renting a public housing apartment outside the Walled City. "I am much happier now because my husband will have the chance to break his drug habit and start a new life," she said.
Suen returns to the Walled City every day to work at her mother-in-law's bakery and to meet with old friends, many of whom have also moved. "Growing up in the Walled City exposed me to a lot of bad things," she said. "But now I live where the sun shines and the air is fresh."
A Brief history:-
The history of the Walled city goes back to 960-1279 (the song dynasty) when the area was a watch post looking out for pirates while managing salt production. Then in the 1800's it was rebuilt as a fort. In 1915, 'The Convention for the Extension of Hong Kong Territory' of 1898 which handed additional parts of Hong Kong (the New Territories) to Britain for 99 years did not include the Walled City, with a population of roughly 700, and stated that China could continue to keep troops there, so long as they did not interfere with Britain's temporary rule.
Britain quickly went back on this unofficial part of the agreement, attacking Kowloon Walled City in 1899, only to find it deserted. They did nothing with it nor to the outpost, and thus sent the question of Kowloon Walled City's ownership squarely into the air. The outpost consisted of a yamen, as well as other buildings (which eventually grew into a low-lying, densely packed neighborhood within the walls), in the era between the 1890s and the 1940s. The enclave remained part of Chinese territory despite the turbulent events of the early 20th century that saw the fall of the Qing government, establishment of a Republic of China in 1911 and later, the People's Republic of China in 1949. The Walled City remained a curiosity - and a tourist attraction where British colonials and tourists could have a taste of the old China - until 1940, when during its World War II occupation of Hong Kong, Japan evicted people from the city, and then demolished much of the city - including the wall - to provide building materials for the nearby Kai Tak Airport.
After Japan's surrender, squatters (whether former residents or - more likely - newcomers) began to occupy the Walled City, resisting several attempts by Britain in 1948 to drive them out. With no wall to protect it initially, the Walled City became a haven for crooks and drug addicts, as the Hong Kong Police had no right to enter the City. Mainland China - whether warlord, Communist, or Kuomintang - refused to take care of it. The foundation of the People's Republic of China in 1949 added thousands of refugees, many from Guangdong, to the population.
By this time, Britain had had enough, and simply adopted a 'hands-off' policy. When a murder occurred in the Walled City in 1959, it set off a small diplomatic crisis as the two nations each tried to get the other to accept responsibility for this tract of land now virtually ruled by anti-Manchurian Triads (a Hong Kong organized crime syndicate).
The Triads' rule lasted until 1973–1974, when a series of over 3,000 police raids targeted them in their Kowloon Walled City stronghold.
Although the walled city was described as a hotbed of criminal activities, the daily lives of its dwellers were largely organized by the residents themselves, rather than by the Triad. Most residents were not involved in any crime and lived peacefully within its walls. Many charities and religious groups helped to improve the lives of residents. Schools and other welfare were being introduced to the district. Numerous small factories and businesses thrived inside the Walled City. The Government of Hong Kong also provided some services such as water and mail delivery in the city.
The Rise of the city begins:-
With the Triads weakened, the Walled City began to grow. Square buildings folded up into one another as thousands of modifications were made, virtually none by architects or engineers, until the entire City became monolithic. Labyrinthine corridors ran through the City, some former streets (at the ground level, and often clogged up with refuse), and some running through upper floors, through and between buildings. The streets were illuminated by fluorescent lights, as sunlight rarely reached the lower levels. There were only two rules for construction: electricity had to be provided to avoid fire, and the buildings could be no more than fourteen stories high, because of the nearby airport. Eight municipal pipes provided water to the entire structure (although more could have come from wells).
By the early 1980s, Kowloon Walled City had an estimated population of 35,000. The City was notorious for its excess of brothels, casinos, opium dens, cocaine parlours, food courts serving dog meat, and secret factories. The Kowloon Walled City was also infamous for its high number of unsanitary dentist clinics, since this was where unlicensed dentists could operate without prosecution.
Evacuation and demolition:-
Over time, both the British and the Chinese governments found the massive, anarchic city to be increasingly intolerable - despite the low reported crime rate. The quality of life in the city, sanitary conditions in particular, was far behind the rest of Hong Kong.
After the Joint Declaration in 1984, the PRC agreed with British authorities to demolish the City and resettle its inhabitants. The mutual decision to tear down the walled city was made in 1987.
At that time, it had 50,000 inhabitants on 0.026 km˛, and therefore a very high population density of 1,923,077/km˛, making it one of the most densely populated urban areas on Earth.
The government spent some HK$ 2.7 billion in compensation to the estimated 33,000 residents and businesses in a plan devised by a special committee of the Hong Kong Housing Authority. Some residents were not satisfied with the compensation, and some even obstructed the demolition in every possible way. Evacuations started in 1991 and were completed in 1992.
The 1993 movie Crime Story starring Jackie Chan was partly made in the deserted Walled City, and includes real scenes of building explosions. Kowloon Walled City was destroyed in the same year. Also, as the Walled City was beginning to be torn down, a group of Japanese explorers took about a week to tour the empty walled city, making a sort of map and a cross section of the city.
After the demolition, a park was built in its place with construction starting in May 1994. It's a beautiful park, and has many remnants of the city which once stood. Despite the beauty of the park, many residents of the WC were left homeless and are struggling to cope with life in the actual city of Kowloon, I suppose for most people, justice has finally been done, but to a lot of other it's a kick in the teeth to be removed from your home to see it get demolished, and then being thrown into the city were none of the jobs they were living by can never be done.
I copied most of this post from another forum I found it on, thinking most on here would found it very interesting, as i did.
Lots to read but as i said, very interesting!
