Inside Hong Kong's Kowloon Walled City
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 11 ก.พ. 2025
- 25 years ago in March, bulldozers moved in to tear down the Kowloon Walled City, a condemned slum area that now evokes fascination and revulsion in Hong Kong’s collective memory.
The South China Morning Post's Infographics team took a look inside the walls at the lives of the people who lived in the walled city.
My grandmas friend use to live there with her family. Now she owns a restaurant near Chicago called Kowloon. Such an awesome lady.
I live in the Chicagoland area and now want to visit there =D Thanks for sharing
Wait you mean Kowloon. Dude they serve quite good food there
Brian C. th-cam.com/video/Jne9t8sHpUc/w-d-xo.html
@@AF-vy7if that's a stereotype. Even though there's still a festival for dog eating. It's mostly the elders who eat it.
Brian C. I was literally referencing the video. 1:15.
unregulated buildings are just fascinating.
Except when you live in one
@aampier they didn't force anyone ro live there. The walled city existed beacause its location was left in a legal vacuun by error, when the brits returned Honk Kong to China
democrazy yeah should the UN HAVE GOTTEN INVOLVED IN THIS?
They grow organically ... love it too
@@Piromanofeliz They didn't put a gun to anyone's head and say "live here or die" that we know of, they just made it financially implausible for anyone to escape the place.
Similarly if you work a terrible job in US no one is forcing you to stay at that job but everyone knows that finding work is a nearly impossible task these days and if you are employed you have to settle for what they pay you. So your options are work a terrible job for terrible pay or live on the streets.
You can still be forced by circumstances beyond your control and those in power can easily change the rules.
Someone should make a computer rpg based on this city...
I was thinking that, too.
The Last Night
Cyberpunk 2077
incredible;e idea, mate. Jut put these word out in web we might get one in future
that is an interesting idea while i probably won't be making it because i've got other ideas but that is an interesting idea that would be interesting to see
A lot of work went into that drawing!
True
When in Hong Kong many years ago, I went into the walled city with a friend. In short a lot of it was like you could imagine and then there was a small part that looked like a 5 star hotel. I'm sure a hideout for a crime boss.
In another part, a man was dead on the stairs with a needle in his arm.
With a growing population over the world, places like this will return.
marlomma would the good people of Texas be welcoming to share they wide open spaces. With people from around the world, who for some still live in poor cramped conditions?
I'm from and live in the UK
What you're forgetting to realize is that while it would be possible to fit every living person in TX, it would make for a difficult standard of life. You need to keep in mind most people prefer living in areas where they can leave their house and go to the park, mall, grocery store, etc. These desires alone would end the "everyone can live in TX with a house" project quickly. Now, you could try to get around it with a Kowloon style plan. Even then, you risk having this project become very much like how the actual Kowloon became. Given human sin, I can easily imagine even a well-designed Texan Kowloon failing.
There are many more reasons I could give you, but simply put, it's best that the world population not all live in just one place with just one house. Interestingly, giving people their space lends to better behavior from them.
marlomma Yeah I think everyone missed your point. But I think we consume resources exponentially more than taking up space
You do know that overpopulation is a myth right? I have one next door neighbour, that's it, and 3.25 Acres. (Around 1.3 hectares). how many people could live on a lot of that size, comfortably, in an apartment building? You know, there are huge swaths of the earth that are not populated, I don't know why people are so afraid of urbanisation. If more people lived in cities, that gives us more room to grow crops. Look at the size of the US state of Texas, and do some simple math. Texas is 695,662 km and there are about 7.6 billion people on earth. You could fit every person and family on Earth into Texas, with a relatively decent sized house and lot, and still have tons of land left over, just in Texas. We were supposed to have a food shortage by this time, we have more food than we know what to do with, of course people are still starving, because greed, but overpopulation, was a myth in the 1970s, and it's a myth now. We can't tell people to stop having children, that's kind of how you propagate a species. Liberal rubbish. It amazes me how anti-science your statement is.
Kudos to whoever did the drawing of it, it was cool.
I suppose many cyberpunk cities were inspired by Kowloon. And some Japanese cities also.
several 80s sci fi movies had some scenes shot in kowloon walled city
ghost in the shell
TheSunMoon , you can visit a Kowloon city museum in Japan, its modeled after the original, and accurately replicates what it was like.
Art Curious it's good, I visited it!
Where is that museum?
I have friends came from this walled city. For them, it's a very precious memory that cannot be bought with money elsewhere. They said it's a place full of the warmth of neighbourhood and humanity despite the vice activities happened all over the building.. The gangsters and triad society there according to my friends always strictly adhere to the principle that no matter what happened they will never involved innocent people and residents into their business and disputes.
That's quite sweet to hear. Given that it was a city that was created and nurtured by its residents, I can imagine how sad they were when it was demolished. It must be a warm memory, even if the city was extremely dangerous and unsanitary.
I was just fascinated by the looks of the city, it almost looks like it came from a fictional world....
I felt like I just want to explore that place, too bad it was already demolished...
Rip
I wonder where the residents moved to when the place was demolished??
idklol idklol lets just hope they didn’t demolish it while there were residents haha, lol jk of course they forced everyone to move out tho...
Here you can see a list of video games using the Kowloon Walled City as their theme:
hongkonginvideogames.blogspot.com/2016/04/kowloon-walled-city.html?view=classic
John Chiu thanks bud, I’ll take a look :3
but let's be honest, with good and neat planning this kind of 'walled city' can be functional
Yeah the only issues here were sanitation and building standards for stability and safety. Aside from that it looks like a perfectly good palce to live. Maybe not glamorous, but it gets the job done.
I'd feel bad for the claustrophobic fucks though.
Are you implying it wasn't functional?
Mason I think he meant this could be reproduced as a legal place to live, functional in our time. It just makes me think of housing conditions in Judge Dredd, and I don't care much for it.
@@ericc.5141 What does legality have to do with anything? It's was still functional despite the lack of "planning" i.e. control and coercion.
A movie about how the children/adults lived in this city would be great
Yeah like a documentary
a tv drama about this area---A Fist Within Four Walls
Kung fu hustle
There's a book called Chasing the Dragon by a lady called Jackie Pullinger who talks a lot about their lives and follows alongside several! Incredible and harrowing read!
The artwork is amazing. Great detail. Tells a thousand stories. Would love to know the artist and see more of their work
My father grew up in this area. He was poor. But he had a wonderful time there.
The first time I went to HK was 1988. I was a n elementary school boy at 4th grade. My tour bus passed by the infamous notorious Kowloon walled city and the tour guide even stopped the bus at the road side and let us took pictures for 10 minutes but strongly advised us not to enter the walled city especially go there during night time. From the outside, I still remember it looked dilapidated. I saw people coming in and out but I didn't see any notorious characters as described by the mass media.
Tell me more! 💖
Lucky you
ME: I could never live there!
VIDEO: Rent is $5 USD a month.
ME: When can I move in?
😂
It doesnt exist anymore
@@danielperezurbano6578 it a joke
That’s probably why people remember it so fondly, cause rent will never be that cheap again
Wow, that was a great presentation. Invoked so many thoughts of what it could have been like to someone on the outside never to see the inside of this community. Excellent and beautiful illustrations as well.
This wouldve been a nightmare during covid
Kowloon was demolished some time ago, and a park was built there. People left, and they even had to kick out a lot of people who didn't want to leave.
@@Hdk-qy7eu they were all promised homes in a different part of hong kong
not if u close the border and no Chinese are allowed to come
Yes! In Hong Kong & China is a lot of people living there, that why the Covid Virus comes from because of too clouded place.
@@vivianhsiao1493 maybe if u stop eating bat there will be no virus
I bet this place, despite it's poor sanitation, had a strong sense of community. If they could only have figured a few things out it may have been a functionable place to live.
High crime rate though, compared to everywhere else. These types of isolated communities create their own type of society, for better or for worse.
@@axelfoley1406 I agree. They create their own community. "Community," is the word we are all looking for. I live in a place of plenty, but I haven't found this, "community." In fact, in "America," all I find is judgment and a lack of community. I think our modern, industrial society kills our sense of collectivity.
@@josephmichael2096 go live in china then and lets see how far you gett
@@josephmichael2096 same, im from Czech Republic, but i would love to live there. Not only cuz it was cheap. But mainly for the community reasons. Yes, it might have crime, but where isnt. It could be sorted, Kawloon just needed more time to settle their newly come issues, tied with mass population increase. Kawloon stays my utopia that never had a chance to grow from fetus to an adult concept of how we think of towns.
It was a functional place to love, I mean live.
The walled city has always fascinated me. I'd loved to have gone inside it.
same
Same
Same
Wish they hadn't demolished the place and made it a museum instead. Very fascinating how that tiny place was able to house 50k and the necessary shops so it could function like a mini city. And all this without any government or police . Imagine!
It would have a nice tourists attraction and would have kept a piece of the history forever.
A rare view into what human civilization would be without government and in a confined space .
To me this was an unintentional piece of art comparable to the 7 wonders.
there is a government there just unofficial power vacuums are always filled
I think the problem is that they couldn't permanently remove every resident if they had kept it as a muesm, as much as I'd love to see that. They'd get homeless moving back in eventually and with how big and maze like it was, hiding from officials would be easy.
plus, they built upwards without any regulation and without architects, no one know how stable it all actually was, it wouldn't be safe to keep it and potentially crumble down any second
It was governed by the triads. You don't want to be governed by the triads.
The only Libertarian city on earth - and wouldn't you know, run by gangs.
This was incredibly fascinating.
Imagine a videogame set there, with rpg elements based purely on interactions with people and all the wild stuff that can happen in such a small area.
kind of like a fallout game but in a much tighter and packed area would be cool to see
If you want some interaction, go out and live!
Check out the game stray!
@@Macr888kinda. But the game does not feel dark. It feels light hearted and sad whereas Kowloon from these demonstrations feel like a mix of everything. Games like Deus Ex and Yakuza are much more similar to the actual concept.
Well I’ll take the COD black ops mission for now
The real question is, where did all the trash get put other than the rooftops? There's simply not room for that much trash, where did it get put?
While there was no regular trash collection as many of us would understand it.There was a system in place to remove trash from its streets and carry it out of the walled city and disposed of.
you know, even the Hong Kong Triads can employ a Janitor...
Fire pits and the dead I wonder if they were also cremated
A city like that won't survive a month without a trash removal system. If the Government do nothing about it however, the people would just throw trash somewhere right outside the city and make it a living nightmare, until it becomes too unbearable that someone decides to do something about it.
In your drinking water
i am forever heartbroken that it's impossible to visit this amazing place at least once in my life.....
The walled city in the 2022 video game Stray was heavily based on Kowloon Walled City, as the developers saw it as the perfect playground for cats.
Huh...so that's where the idea for those fictional cities in in things like distopian video games/movies came from. Interesting.
individuaLitiesdisky.
@@jeromekhies4948 what?
How ridiculous. They didn’t come from here. Some may have been influenced by Kowloon, but a dystopia high density area is hardly something that writers didn’t think of before.
I live near that place. It is now a park. I've always thought that it was a fort until it got renovated as a park. Wow. (I am born in the 2000s.)
For the people living there, it would have been painful to watch it being demolished. All the memories spent there, would have flashed in that moment while witnessing the destruction.💔
“Embarrassment” I’d say f**king marvellous achievement and a testament to humanity for being soo ingenious when it comes to coming together as a community
Well I think I know where Real Life Lore got his information from.....................
Haha yeah I watched his video first, then this one, almost identical in the information presented.
So there was this little cheap doll that my sister got for her birthday when she was 2 years old. It came with a bed, and for some reason, I started reading the tag that was on the pillow. It said what it was made of and all that, and when I got to the part where it said where it was made, it read Kowloon, Hong Kong. So I searched the name up and this is where it brought me.
excellent drawing ... its not romanticising it to much but it also does not make it look repugnant , great work :)
The sad thing is that this situation is still happening as we speak...the new term is called cage homes
I was wondering if anyone would mention this. Very true.
and it's even worse.. and lonelier
yup, but now the capitalists have figured out how to make money from it, so they're allowing new kowloon walled cities
I really love the look of this place and how it reminds me of a post-apocalyptic world.
Reminds me of Amegakure in Naruto (where's Konan came from) and sci-fi films. Btw I really love this cross-section style to describes the information in the video especially when describing places! Thanks! This channel is one of my fav 💖
Hats off to the artist for this complicated and detailed illustration
They should make a sitcom out of this, it would make a really good plot
Why did you say no offense? What’s offensive about saying they should make a sitcom out of a really interesting topic? You snowflakes and your political correctness. Lighten up.
Looks like someone already got offended by your warning... Is this some kind of a loophole, someone being PC offending the person accusing them of being a snowflake and in reality the conservative become the snowflake?Mind blown...
yes
Shane snowflake flooding in this thread. I'm pretty sure he means there can be a ton of close nit interesting characters and stories since literally everything exists in the city. But you wouldnt see things from that angle cause your angle is finding things that are offensive.
Marty McFly How do you figure I’m a conservative? I’m completely against the Republican worldview. I use to proudly call myself a Democrat until the party got clogged up by weak minded babies demanding trigger warnings and safe spaces and shutting down anyone with views that don’t align with their politically correct bullshit.
Beautiful art. I wouldn't mind hanging one on a wall.
I wouldn't just not mind, I would be very happy to.
I wanna see what it feels like to live in that city
Probably less disconnected form of living. We want to put up so many walls for our selves to keep us away and isolated from each other, these people would have no choice but to adapt to being closer to those around them. The buildings being so unregulated, they have an appeal of intuitive structure. Today its all about math and practicality. But I see intuition as very practical for the mind. More interactions each day means more opportunities to connect. Being a naturally poor place Im sure people took so much less for granted, but they probably lived regular lives not too different from most everyone else outside because they made piss poor money working there, but it was cheap cost of living.. The only difference being that they could isolate themselves from standard living controlled by culture and government. They made their own culture. We should not shun the outcasts way of living because if we try to integrate them they could not be true to themselves. When an individual makes a choice on how to live, its a critical choice for the world around them. We cant rightfully say someone shouldnt live a certain way because we are all people a part of a society. The society breaks when an outside force tries to intervene and would not only destroy the ideas, culture, and way of living for one, but change the same for those outside it due to influence. Clearly this has effected so many people across the world even after its destruction. Whats left of it still draws people in even if its just an idea because it felt so human to even observe its creation and still influences people.
@@nuguns3766 u're a moron
@@SethGreenFarlane So are you
@Kind Citizen smol pp
@Kind Citizen bed citizen UWU
"We've got plenty of windows" Reminds me to Black Ops 1.
I'm already a dead man
There is something hauntingly beautiful & esoteric about the 'City of Darkness.'
From the first moment I heard about it I was fascinated & thanks to TH-cam, it's now possible to learn so much about its past & eventual demise.
If I ever go to Hong Kong, I'd look it up to pay my respects in remembrance of an era long gone, but not forgotten.....🤔
I forgot to say thank you for a fascinating & detailed look at a section of the City, although caricatured, it still captures the essence within the detailed drawings.
The artist(s) have done an immaculate job indeed!!
The change was so massive that it moves me to tears. :'( Sadly the reality is, Hong Kong is getting more densely populated even now.
The curious thing is that there is a lot of undeveloped land in the Territory.
This is what the media should look like....Clear animation and concise information... Perfect.
WOW, who drew this, it's beautiful drawing, I love all the details !
Its Crazy to believe a city like this existed 30 years ago, i wish i ciuldve seen from my own eyes
That is fucking awesome.
It's like a future city where everything is tightly packed but with enough room to explore.
demolazy Yeah exactly. Centuries of exclusion and neglectful property policies led to the creation of this necessary abomination.
I came after the video game 'Stray' to which the Kowloon Walled City has been an inspiration.
jeez props to the artist who drew this
I bet there's some crazy stories from the former residents that lived there id love to hear some
Looks like something out of my childhood imagination
Bro same!👁️👄👁️
Excellent infographics!
still looks like a lot of hong kong today: overpriced, crowded, very poor-quality "housing"
...In other words, like nowhere except in your head.
MrJm323
Don’t like the truth?
@@AB-ou8ve You don't.
Except, it was not expensive
@@MrJm323 you're pathetic
If you get the chance to read Jackie Pullinger’s ‘Chasing the Dragon’, you would get a real idea of what life was like for the average person here from the 1960s to 1990s.
It's great to know that someone still remembers her.
I've read that!
Hong Kong has changed, people are more materialistic and monetary now. The younger generation are pride of the golden time and starting to slack. Its all different. Lot less love, lot less warmth.
That's life in a capitalist world. You're well on your way.
@demolazy [X]
Did anyone else tear up watching the closeups of this beautiful artwork
Who is responsible for that brilliantly detailed drawing? Also, what happened to all the residents? How much time were they given to evacuate?
They were given a nice sum of money to relocate. Some were happy and some not.
that city and that picture both are amazing
Frankly, a well-planned, integrated version of this that meets health and safety codes would be a fantastic architectural arrangement for the entire dorm complex of a university. It would make hooking up effortlessly easy.
I love the attention to detail in the drawing.
After reading some of the comments here , I believe some of the people are mistaken Kowloon Walled City with Kowloon City , City of Kowloon and with Kowloon City District. All these entities could be confusing to any foreigners. I grew up in To Kwa Wan , and had visited the Kowloon Walled City in the late fifties and early sixties. As a youngster and knowing its reputation for lawlessness, it seemed quaint and surreal at the time. I left the area as quickly as I had entered. But was able to say that I had been tbere. I had since emigrated to the U.S. , this is the first time that I realized that the Kowloon Walled City had been demolished. Even in To Kwa Wan , we routinely had to endure waste water from above , with or without the benefit of an umbrella.
i have been to this walled city before it was demolished. It was an adventure as I remember. I didn't feel dangerous in that time.
when did you go?
One of the most fascinating things about Hong Kong.
Although fucked up and in utter chaos, it's kind of amazing what humans can build in such tiny spaces like this.
iniciationtinskies
It is a shame that this video chose to only look at the squalor and negative aspects of the walled city. Because there was so much more to the place than that. Ask yourself why so many chose to live there in those conditions? It was not all out of necessity or poverty. Freedom and self determination was one big reason, for good or bad. Was it libertarianism to the extreme? Likely. Was it lawless? Not exactly. But it sure did unnerve both the British and Chinese governments alike. It was a social and civic anarchy and a rare anomaly that worked.
Thats interesting to know Bill, do you have some personnal experiences regarding the walled city and its atmonsphere? I'm a student studying about it right now!
Yes I did a bit of research a few years ago on dystopian architecture and discovered the walled city and was so fascinated I continued my research . I can highly recommend to you, to read "City of Darkness revisited" by Greg Girard & Ian Lambot. It has a lot of personal accounts of what it was like to live there as well as some stunning photos and a truthful account of both the good and the bad, free from political bias.
Very cool! I'll take a look at it!
Bill Talbot No one is negating the fact that lots of industrious people worked and lived there, but it doesn’t mean the place wasn’t a preposterous way for humans to live. Much like tenement houses in NYC during the industrial revolution, lots may have come from the people who lived within it, but it was still basically a slum. That’s why people are fascinated by it, because it was such a ridiculous way for people to live.
thumb down
The art work is amazing!
My old Aunty lived there and I stayed with her one summer when I was 15 for two months. I will never forget such an experience and wish it was not necessary to demolish it 😢
The art is just **chef's kiss**
I've been to Kowloon and stayed there for Five days. Nice place to live on my Opinion.
kowloon, or kowloon walled city?
Diligent One-Six lol i’ve been to Kowloon too but not the walled city tho.
I am scared of no wall.... but this place... this place... it just scares me
I lived there for ten years. Loved every second.
I hope you are interviewed or otherwise write down your experiences - the whole idea of life in a city like this is extremely interesting to the wider world.
I find it hard to believe you could actually love every second living there. Still, I and many others would read the heck out of a first hand account of living there. Absolutely fascinating place.
Yeah I'm English was born in England and became a plasterer. U travelled the world plastering major airports and governmental building. Lived in Hong kong and lan tau island. Amazing place. It will never be the same again. I'm happy to tell all if anyone can be bothered to read ?
@@twt3716 i would be more than happy to read!
@@yinnybear531 Thank you :) that's very kind of you. I'll write an account here in the next couple of days. Have a splendid day young lady :) x
This place is a dream. It was an Living Architecture, a true Concrete organism, living and growing on its own. Shame we dont see how it could ended. Me as a European digital nomad, i would definitelly go there for a week or a month, and maybe who knows, for that price i might stay there. I like cheap living :D
Nice illustration
imagine being on the middle floor, of the building on the middle of the city, wow
This surprised me I live in HK but the apartments were crowded but not that big
Thank you for your post x
Imagine a video game set in a place like this
It's called Deus Ex: Human Revolution
There is a mission modelled after it in Black Ops 1.
Shenmue 2 have the second arc on Kowloon.
There's a map in Overwatch that's a little similar but I don't think that's really what you're talking about.
@@Sparkette sauce?
That was a amazing - great work!
Wow that music made it even more epic
Does anyone know what the music is called?
Imagine spending your entire childhood and teenage years in a place that you could never revisit.
Interesting. A light novel called "Etsusa Bridge" brought me here, having described its fictional city as a dead ringer for Kowloon. It's by Ryohgo Narita if anyone's curious.
This city looks like straight from a fantasy world
I never knew it exist before
Where's WALDO? Kept looking for him but couldn't find him... Can You?
: )
I saw him in the brothel on floor 8.
I ate him 😞
Its a myth that Kowloon city was a lawless and crime sprawling city, in actually the Royal Hong Kong Police Force would patrol Kowloon city just like any regular district, and while there were brothels and gambling dens, those were rare, majority of its residents were just poor people. Rent was super cheap and so was the food, water and electricity was free so you can imagine why people would want to live in here.
Electricity was not free there. CLP Power HK provided electricity supply in the walled city, just like other buildings located in Kowloon City district (The Walled City was within Kowloon City District).
Running water was operated by "powerful" gags who in return, charge each household with a fixed sum per month. However, the supply was not stable.
So basically Kowloon Walled City was like a living Mattias Adolfsson drawing/Dance Gavin Dance album art
Does anyone else find this depressing? A community built this place for about 100 years only for it to be taken down like it was nothing.
"THE OLDEST ANARCHY SERVER IN MINECRAFT"
But in irl
You mean 2b2t
Huss.02 yesn’t
Love the detailed pictures.
Of any one wants to know the songs it's 'the lighthouse - David Buckley enjoy 😋
Thanks but its coming up with different videos, a proper link would be nice
@@johnbarnes7485 can't find it on TH-cam you have to buy it. I looked for ages
It's on spotify
I wish I could have visited the walled City. But honestly, judging from the videos on TH-cam, and my recent visit with family in Kowloon, I don't see much difference between the walled City and how Kowloon looks and functions now.
I think this is how the future would look. Too many people;(
Hm
Wow with the current cost of living crisis, $8 a month sounds amazing.
quite remarkable foundation for its kind considering that it was built w/o an architect and engr.
Legacy of the British colonisation of Hong Kong.
My dad used to visit this place for breakfast sometimes. I also have an old crime report made in that area that my gramps left behind. Apparently there were lots of drug dens and prostitution there too.
I'd love to hear stories about what went on in this interesting city, with so many people and so much history I reckon you could fill a library with them.
Living in Hong Kong for HK$35 a month? Sounds like the dream.
LOL SO TRUE!!!
Thats whats happends when removing all regulations. Less hassel lower cost
such an eye-opening video!
Credit the artist who make such detail works, kudos to you
Amazing story, hauntingly beautiful music.
Oh the Stories that must've nestled here!!
why not make a game in its memory!
lived 7 yrs in HKG. The place is just way too crowded for the avg. human being to inhabit for any amount of time. Just walking down the sidewalk in middle of the day in kowloon or Central Hong Kong is stressfull - run into people as the sidewalks are meant for 2-3 width of humans yet it is like 7-8 people all walking for the same space. shit is dripping on your head, the noise pollution is unbelievable and Hong Kongers like to change their apartment design or refurnish because of fengshui so the damn drilling is no-stop because someone always seems to be doing this. it's just a stressful place and the "parks" are just the size of a typical yard in the US.