The City of Darkness
Kowloon Walled City: A Dark, Overcrowded, and Lawless Maze
One postman but 33,000 residents. This unfortunate man always wears a hat to be protected from the never-ending leaks of pipes that wind around the walls and ceilings of what the locals used to call Hak Nam, also known as the City of Darkness. More than 350 buildings with 10,700 households, all confined to a space the size of four football fields. Wiring, iron balconies, cables, tight hallways, crammed factories, and a perpetual haze of vapor and toxic chemicals meant that not just the light, but also civilization, was left behind when entering Kowloon Walled City (Crawford). But how did this place come to be?
It all began with the establishment of an Imperial Chinese military fort in the Hong Kong region around 1810. This post was not considered strategically important until 1842 when the Chinese government leased Hong Kong and surrounding territories to Britain after the two Opium Wars. The agreement excluded the walled city, allowing China to keep officials stationed there as long as they did not interfere. Although the Chinese dynasty that ruled at the time collapsed in 1912, leaving Kowloon to the British, it was mostly ignored. It first underwent change when during the Japanese occupation in the Second World War, the walls were destroyed to expand a nearby airport. In 1946, after the war ended, China reclaimed the territory. This encouraged many people escaping the Chinese Civil War to find refuge in the Walled City. Futile attempts from the British to reduce the population caused Kowloon to develop and exist independently. It became the most densely populated place on earth at its peak in 1987, with 1,255,000 inhabitants per square kilometer or 3,250,000 per square mile. (Wikipedia).
A heaven for criminals and illegal activities, Kowloon Walled City was known for its brothels, gambling dens, and opium parlors, all handled by the Triads, a notorious criminal syndicate. During the 1970s a series of police raids made the City safer but its reputation persisted. Furthermore, many doctors and dentists from China chose to work in Kowloon because their license was not recognized in Hong Kong (Aeon). What used to be a military fort was now a way, or rather a maze, to improve one’s life.
However, the history books state that after an agreement between the British and the Chinese government in 1993, the demolition of Kowloon Walled City began. It was believed that the unhealthy living conditions, the risk of fire, and the uncontrolled situation called for a remedy. After two years, the Kowloon Walled City Park came to be where the city used to stand. But not all was destroyed: the ramen, or the original building for the administration of the fort, remained standing, a symbol of the history of this place and all those who inhabited it.
To learn more about the City and explore its contrasting identities, I suggest watching this video.
Thank you for reading.
Works Cited
Crawford, James. “The Strange Saga of Kowloon Walled City.” Atlas Obscura, Atlas Obscura, 6 Jan. 2020, www.atlasobscura.com/articles/kowloon-walled-city.
“Kowloon Walled City.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 23 July 2024, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kowloon_Walled_City.
“The Rise and Fall of Kowloon Walled City, Hong Kong’s Infamous Urban Monolith.” Aeon, 23 Aug. 2023, aeon.co/videos/the-rise-and-fall-of-kowloon-walled-city-hong-kongs-infamous-urban-monolith.