Kowloon Walled City | |
|---|---|
 An aerial view of the Kowloon Walled City in 1989 | |
  Kowloon Walled City Former location within Hong Kong | |
| Coordinates: 22°19′56.21″N 114°11′19.18″E / 22.3322806°N 114.1886611°E | |
| Established | Song Dynasty (960–1279) |
| Demolished | 1993 |
| Area | |
| • Total | 0.026 km2 (0.0102 sq mi) |
| Population | |
| • Estimate (1987) | 33,000 |
| • Density | 1,255,000/km2 (3,249,000/sq mi) |
Kowloon Walled City (traditional Chinese: 九龍城寨; simplified Chinese: 九龙城寨; pinyin: Jiǔlóng Chéng Zhài) was a Chinese military fort in Kowloon, Hong Kong, that became an enclave after the Convention for the Extension of Hong Kong Territory ceded the New Territories to Great Britain in 1898. Following Japanese occupation during World War II, the Walled City developed into an extremely dense, largely ungoverned urban settlement during the latter half of the 20th century. According to a 1987 government survey, it contained 33,000 residents within its 6.5-acre (0.03 km2; 0.01 sq mi) borders.
In January 1987, the government announced plans to demolish the Walled City. Demolition began in March 1993 and was completed in April 1994. Kowloon Walled City Park, occupying the area of the former Walled City, opened in December 1995. Some historical artifacts from the Walled City, including its yamen and remnants of its South Gate, have been preserved there.
History edit
Military outpost edit
The 1893 Hongkong Guide ... described one of the popular 'picnic party' walks on the Kowloon mainland ending in the "curious and particularly dirty little Kowloon City", where a circuit of walls "can be made in five minutes. The formalities usually insisted upon in garrison towns . . . are dispensed with here. You come, you see, you walk round."
—Julia Wilkinson, City of Darkness, p. 61[1]
Urban settlement edit
| Kowloon Walled City | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| An aerial view of Kowloon Walled City in 1989 | |||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 九龍城寨 | ||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 九龙城寨 | ||||||
| |||||||
| Original name | |||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 九龍寨城 | ||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 九龙寨城 | ||||||
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[In the 1960s] we used to play marbles in the streets, and sometimes we played on the roofs. It was fun to move from one roof to another and watch things happening far away. I remember the drug addicts, of course. There were opium dens all over the City in those days and sometimes, just for fun, we would barge in to look at the people lying there taking their puffs.
—Former resident, City of Darkness, p. 179[1]
The City reared up abruptly from the bare ground, ... six-and-a-half acres of solid building, home to 33,000 people, the biggest slum in the world. It was also, arguably, the closest thing to a truly self-regulating, self-sufficient, self-determining modern city that has ever been built.
—Peter Popham, City of Darkness, p. 9[1]
Here you had a totally self-contained, land-locked, extralegal community of tens of thousands of people crammed into a tiny space, each with one idea in mind: survival.
—Peter Popham, City of Darkness, p. 10[1]
There were no thoroughfares in the City – and no vehicles except the odd bicycle – only hundreds of alleys, each different. From the innocuous, neutral outside you plunged in. The space was often no more than four feet wide. Immediately, it dipped and twisted, the safe world outside vanished, and the Walled City swallowed you up.
—Peter Popham, City of Darkness, p. 12[1]
Eviction and demolition edit
How will [the evicted residents] adjust to the changes, how will they take to life in the outside world? Will they have adequate resources and space to live? But then, on the other hand, I think of the narrow dank passageways, the rats running through the cracks in the concrete and the useless ancient cannons that seem to have been discarded by the side of the street. I don't want simply to preserve the place out of nostalgia or curiosity.
—Leung Ping Kwan, City of Darkness, p. 122[1]
The dismay of residents was tangible, their uncertainty for the future great. The prospect of dispossession was particularly acute among the longer-term residents and the elderly. "I've lived in this City from the age of one; I'm 76 now. This is my home and this is where all my friends are", explained Law Oi Chu. "But then times have changed. What can old people do?"
—Charles Goddard, City of Darkness, p. 209[1]
In April 1993, to the fascinated gaze of assembled residents from the City's neighboring estates, a giant ball and chain – operated by a company brought in specifically from the USA – began swinging at the City's outer walls.
—Charles Goddard, City of Darkness, p. 211[1]
Layout and architecture edit
The Walled City was located in what is now Kowloon City, an area in Kowloon. In spite of its transformation from a fort into an urban enclave, the Walled City retained the same basic layout. The original fort was built on a slope[2] and consisted of a 6.5-acre (0.03 km2; 0.01 sq mi) plot measuring about 210 by 120 m (700 by 400 ft). The stone wall surrounding it had four entrances and measured 4 m (13 ft) tall and 4.6 m (15 ft) wide before it was dismantled in 1943.[3][4] Construction surged dramatically during the 1960s and 1970s, until the formerly low-rise City consisted almost entirely of buildings with 10 stories or more (with the notable exception of the Yamen in its center).[5][6] However, due to the Kai Tak Airport's position 0.8 km (0.5 mi) south of the City, buildings did not exceed 14 stories.[7] The two-story Sai Tau Tsuen settlement bordered the Walled City to the south and west until it was cleared in 1985 and replaced with Carpenter Road Park.[8][9]
The City's dozens of alleyways were often only 1–2 m (3.3–6.6 ft) wide, and had poor lighting and drainage.[10] An informal network of staircases and passageways also formed on upper levels, which was so extensive that one could travel north to south through the entire City without ever touching solid ground.[5] Construction in the City went unregulated, and most of the roughly 350 buildings were built with poor foundations and few or no utilities.[11] Because apartments were so small—60% were 23 m2 (250 sq ft)—space was maximized with wider upper floors, caged balconies, and illegal rooftop additions.[6][12][13] Roofs in the City were full of television antennas, clotheslines, water tanks, and garbage, and could be crossed using a series of ladders.[14][15]
Population edit
Culture edit
Kowloon Walled City Park edit
Declared monuments edit
Cultural depictions edit
See also edit
Old section titles
- Military outpost (c. 1000–1945)
- Triad rule (1945–1983)
- Population and construction boom (1973–1987)
- Eviction and demolition (1987–1994)
References edit
- ^ a b c d e f g h Lambot, Ian (June 6, 1999). City of Darkness. Watermark. ISBN 978-1873200131.
{{cite book}}: Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help) - ^ Lambot, p. 18.
- ^ Sinn, Elizabeth. "Kowloon Walled City: Its Origin and Early History" (PDF). Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. 27: 30–31. Retrieved 25 November 2009.
- ^ Benedetti, Paul (18 September 1982). "A nervy tour of Kowloon's Walled City". The Globe and Mail.
- ^ a b Lambot, p. 48.
- ^ a b Goddard, Charles. "The Clearance". In City of Darkness: Life in Kowloon Walled City. pp. 208–11.
- ^ Lambot, p. 206.
- ^ Greg, Girard. "Foreword". In City of Darkness: Life in Kowloon Walled City. p. 7.
- ^ Lambot, p. 71.
- ^ Wesley-Smith, Peter (1998). Unequal treaty, 1898-1997: China, Great Britain, and Hong Kong's new territories (Rev. ed.). Hong Kong: Oxford University Press. p. 190. ISBN 0195903544.
- ^ Lambot, pp. 48, 74, 79.
- ^ Lambot, pp. 34, 199.
- ^ Basler, Barbara (16 June 1992). "The Walled City, Home to Huddled Masses, Falls". The New York Times. p. A4.
- ^ Popham, Peter. "Introduction". In City of Darkness: Life in Kowloon Walled City. pp. 9–13.
- ^ Lambot, pp. 199, 203.