The Densest City In The World Had A (Strange) Secret
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A NOLLISTUDIO/NOLLIMEDIA Production
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00:00 INTRO
01:18 KOWLOON WALLED CITY ORIGIN STORY
02:57 THE RHIZOME
08:00 DYNAMIC MENTAL MAPS
09:16 THE WALLS
10:27 THE HEART OF KOWLOON
11:56 THE SPIRIT OF KOWLOON
#kowloon #hongkong #architecture
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There is a book dust on the wind it's a post civil war western by Dan parkinson. It notes the similarities between gangs and governments. The info of how the locals and the gangs organized with out the regular big governments reminded me of this book
.. if Kowloon residents could thrive, why not those in Gaza?
@@superjfbm that's not just false equivalence, that's moronic equivalence.
Places like Kowloon would be incredible to recreate in VR and I feel like that's almost the only way to really get a feel for how condensed the city was.
there is a game already based on it. but a VR game would be nice
edit: The game I was thinking about was Kowloon's gate. That one I liked becuase it had the creepy pre-rendered look of CGI from the 2000's. There are also newer games, I think Welcome to Kowloon.
@@philcollinslover56705 sheesh, you can't just tell me there's a game based on it without dropping the name!
@@Broken_Orbital "Stray", the cat game
@@whannabi Stray was heavily inspired by it. You can google "hongkonginvideogames kowloon" for a good overview. In most games it's just a small part that is set in "the walled city".
There have actually been multiple interpretations and recreations of Kowloon that have arisen online. None exactly the same but all capturing some of the collective memories and nostalgia.
I used to work with someone who grew up there. The weird thing is that it wasn't until years later that I realized this was what she was describing. Her brief descriptions were so understated, things like "people never had to leave the building, everything they needed was there. Stores, restaurants, jobs. Some people lived their entire lives there." I was always erroneously imagining it as modern city high-rises with walkways connecting them or something. I never would've imagined what it really was like.
It's like a prison. Some women was born there and been sex worker for their entire life. It become the only life style they knew and to way to live until they die.
@@jiasunzhang8001 It's different for every person. We've heard a line like that for every city.
The discription makes it seem like an arkology, doesn't it? To my knowledge there currently is onlyone in use, but Kowloon technicallywould have been one too?
I think the Map of the Game "Stray" is inspirated by this city. Realy interesting Game. Can recommend it!
@@khronos2213 Of course it's different for every people, but don't you think this dystopian slum kind of enhanced the suffering of the unlucky? It really was lawless, citizens had to negotiate with literal gangsters instead of calling police.
My Dad lives there when he was young, included one of my aunt 2 uncles and 3 of my cousins and grandma
I had also visited that place when I was around or before 5 years old. Their unit was illegally seprated into 1 and a half floor. where the upper floor was the bedroom. Kitchen is next to the bathroom/ washroom in the main floor at the back. They cook with something that looks like a gas tank, and it was super hot once they cook. The unit they live in got no windows beside a fan to get fresh airs while cooking. Inside the unit you can see the ground crawing with ants ... and everynight there will crocroach coming out ... I remember my dad brought me there to stay over a few times when I was a kid ... the stair that lead to the upper floor was made out of sharp stone with no handrail installed. Outside the unit I recall we always have to walk a distance of left and right like a maze before getting out of the place. water always dripping somewhere along the way with water puddle on the ground even if it was not raining at all.
I'm from HK, dad would some times bring up "Kowloon shing" with relatives, I didn't really think much of it and just thought of it as the kowloon city now. I recently found out that he was actually talking about kowloon walled city, he had relatives there and he would go live with them in the summer when he was a child, he said the neighbourly community was very tight there, whenever he visited the occupants would recognise him immediately and word of him arriving would reach his relatives before he even found their house. He says he still has dreams about being lost there.
The water dripping is sometimes condensation. When a place is closed and people are living inside it, even if they aren't cooking or showering, the body itself can humidify the space enough to have water condensation accumulated on the walls and ceiling.
I can only imagine what it would smell like in there.
@@DirceuCorsetti yeah some times it smells really bad if it is raining ... no the dripping is surely not from the body of someone but for sure can be from leaks, aircondition etc from upper floors
@@dunkyourdonuts2282 hummm ... you reminds me of these weird dreams of my mom bringing me to these underground hall ways XD .... yeah as a kid ... you can get lost in there
@@dunkyourdonuts2282 I asked my dad a little more about their family ... it turns out the unit that I was visiting belongs to my grandma, my uncle have another unit next to it but he sold it and move in with grandma while my aunt lives right across the path way .. after hearing that .. a little more memory kind of comes back a bit XD
My mom's family used to live there! When we visited the garden last summer, my Popo tried to tell me about what it was like (through the broken translation of my mom). Even with her description, it was impossible for me to envision what it must've looked like back in those days. This was very enlightening for me!
wow ... my dad's family live there too .. I have been there a few times to visit my grandma, aunt, 2 uncles and 3 cousins ... I never thought this place would later be a historic place
Btw popo means grandma
I moved to Hong Kong many years ago. The very first place I went to explore was Kowloon Walled City. Every road, every passable alleyway, across the roofs, into every open area, up every accessible stairway. The people were friendly and found it amusing that a foreigner would spend so much time looking around.
Photography was ... challenging as many areas were cut off from all but a few lightbulbs.
It was truly unique.
Did you publish the photos anywhere? I'd love to see them.
@@neiloppa2620 unfortunately no. an ex girlfriend took them all and the negatives and never gave them back. all i have is memories.
@@pauldwalker sorry to hear that your art was taken.
@@neiloppa2620 There are quite a few rather famous photo books published about by the walled city. Google is your friend.
Wow, what a chance you had to visit Kowloon, and you did the most you could out of it. I envy you. I visited Hong Kong waaaaaaay after the walled city was demolished, so I only went to Kowloon Walled City Park. I would have spent my time exploring the place as well if I could.
One thing that amazes me about Kowloon is that with its density, lack of gaps, lack of regulations, general lawlessnes, and the ramshackle nature of its infrastructure, it somehow managed to not completely burn out in a gigantic uncontrollable blaze...
Right?! They portray human nature as destructive when left alone without any order or governance but that city kind of showed that it is somehow possible for humans to continue living without killing themselves entirely. Or maybe the intervention by the government came before the city could have been burnt down
Like, london did have a government, and that city DID burn to the ground@@somethingsomethingsomethingg
@@somethingsomethingsomethingg it takes a basic sense of respect for ones surroundings and community. That is both a cultural thing (Americans couldn't manage it lol) but also a conditioning thing. If you're used to living in nuclear families with a nanny state hovering over you, you're going to be less connected with your neighbors, communities, ect.
The togetherness of something like Kowloon is what we naturally crave as human beings. The only people who hate this are Psychopaths. Can you guess what most of our political and business elite are?
@@caseyb1346That place was a shit hole-not sure you looked past the glamorization to realize this.
@@bs8716it is but that proved the point. Humans can actually do something without government. We were programmed to think gov touching things are good. It’s always bad.
I remember visiting the walled city just before it was torn down. When we realized it would be, my mother and I went to take a look. When the narrator said "beauty"... I instantly understood what she meant. But boy it was also unsettlingly polluted, dirty, and dark. Especially the ground floors. I remember the dampness and sludge we had to circumnavigate to get around. I remember ignoring the surprised looks we got, but one instance has stayed with me... coming across a child. This child was younger than me at the time. I remember thinking how blessed I was. I went to pick up the child as to remove (him/her - I don't remember) out of the grime they were sitting in. The child began to whimper/cry at my reaching hands. Instantly scared that I might be reprimanded by an unseen parent for seemingly making the situation worse despite my good intentions, I backed off. I then reached into my pocket to grab a couple of black currant gummies (Frutips brand - a Hong Kong favorite) and gave the child a couple. The crying stopped immediately. We shared a moment of peaceful realization of both my intent, but perhaps our near similarities in age, yet worlds apart in environment and experiences. I smiled, nodded, and walked away. I looked over my shoulder at about 10 paces to see the child dig into the second gummy. It made me smile and gave me a sense of hope and peace for that child. By the time I got to the end of the lane, now breaching the exit of the city - about 30ft away - I looked one more time back into the dark... the child was gone, as if the city had swallowed the experience whole.
You should be a writer! This was so well written!
@@talalkhalid2920 thank you so much! Your compliment means a lot to me!
That’s kinda weird that you would go up to a child, being a child yourself, and pick them up.
@hollywood23007 Your post read like an exert from a novel which I am now desperate to read. You truly are a wordsmith and I hope that the strangers who were touched by your writing have inspired you to start or continue to share the way you view our world
This was amazing!! I actually visited the Walled City as a young woman in 1981 and met with Jackie Pullinger who had an amazing ministry to the young men in the walled city who were addicted to Opium - I've always wondered what happened to the city and so appreciate the respect you attributed to that place- it has stayed with me and always will... thank you!
Wow was it a vacation or business trip?
Kowloon was the world's first Arcology, albeit unintentional. Hopefully it was studied as to the effects of feeding, housing, waste disposal in such a dense environment. It probably could have only happened once, and it was truly amazing. I would love to hear the tales of this chaotic beauty. When people say they are nostalgic for it, it is the same for anyone who moves away from home, it is not the structure, but the people that made the place special.
It was also the first ancap territory, and it kinda worked.
I grew up there over 50 years ago! You can read what I wrote in another comment thread (look for CollinAbroadcast). My summary: human history should never have that happen again, but unfortunately, there are many slums worse than that sill existing all over the world today, such as in India, Philippines, Brazil...and coming to USA too.
@@SergioLeonardoCornejotrue, tho I feel like that's because of how small and interconnected the community was. I don't think it could scale up properly
@@cf5235 maybe not. But let's just say actual anarchy has been tried and it worked. Unlike another system which has been tried and failed on so many places yet we are told it hasn't been tried. One of the places or has been tried was actually closely related to Kowloon, and another has Moscow as capital.
@@SergioLeonardoCornejo It really is good evidence of the ancap/libertarian notion that in anarchy, people will self-organize and society will still exist, and order will be created spontaneously in a 'bottom up' / emergent fashion. Dont think I'd prefer it but its still fascinating to see a historical account of it in action.
my grandfather grew up here in the 40s to 60s and man his storys are crazy
I need to hear these stories!
Oh I would love to hear those
Compile those stories in a book!
Time for you to do a Reddit post with any pictures and stories. People would love it I guarantee it my friend!
Record those stories! From a purely academic political perspective, a lot of people would like a personal perspective on an officially unregulated community
It's a weird thing but beauty really lies in the eye of the beholder. I grew up in post-soviet Poland in concrete blocks. Most people would probably not consider them beautiful, quite the opposite - grey blocks basically. They were after all created with cheap materials and practicality in mind, not beauty. But I have to admit that I have really fond memories of them and think that they are actually stunning and beautiful in their own way.
Everything/memory has value. Even the grey block.
This city has always, always fascinated me since I stumbled upon it online years ago. I think the way you described it in this video, “a living organism,” for example, articulated the way I always tried to analogize it. I just could never quite find the words. Beautiful job. I really enjoyed this one.👏🏻
37 yrs on this Earth and this is the first time I remember ever hearing about this city. The history of the world and humans navigating it feels endless and almost inconceivable.
There is a lot more to the story of Kowloon and its...unusual history. It's worth looking up to read more about it.
@@tiredlocke unusual history is right up my alley, I think I might definitely do that…thank you!
That's probably because you've never read William Gibson. The book Idoru has direct reference to it.
You may have never heard of the city itself but it has inspired so much sci-fi and other fiction I'm sure you've encountered something related to it, even if you didn't know.
Great comment...... And I agree with your sentiment!
My aunty was adopted from an orphanage in Kowloon at 7 years old, and flown to America back in the early sixties. I found this very interesting to see more about the place she was from. She hated that orphanage and refuses to say much about her experiences there. We've only ever heard bits and pieces.
I feel like “adopted” isn’t how she remembers it…hopefully she wasn’t kidnapped or sold by that orphanage.😢
@@Silent_Soliloquies It was a Catholic orphanage and an international adoption agency. Because international adoption was rare in the 60's, both governments were involved to oversee it. The main concern at the time was vetting my grandparents to make sure they weren't adopting a "servant" or were possible human traffickers. The orphanage didn't get any massive payout from the adoption. Most of the money my grandparents spent went to legal fees, flights, etc.
My aunty told us of the bugs on the walls at night, and one disturbed girl who would sit against the wall and hit her head repeatedly till she bled. That memory has stayed with her longer than any other. It's not that the nuns were necessarily mean. It was more that they had way too many kids and not enough resources for them all. She was severely malnourished when she came to our family. She had been in the orphanage since infancy. The nuns said she was dropped off when she was only a few days old. Until she came to America, the orphanage was all she had ever known. My aunty is now well into her 60's, and loves life. She lives less than a mile from me and remains one of my closest relatives. For a tiny woman all of 4'5" tall, she gives the strongest hugs. And if I make an off-handed comment, she grins in spite of herself but I get a stern "Jennie!" and then I get slapped. I'd change nothing about our family, and neither would she.
You just know she was heavily abused at that orphanage if she's so adamant in not talking about it.
this video kind of presents Kowloon in a falsified glory kind of way. the stories of gruesome and brutal things that happened daily in the deepest and most dangerous parts of the slums that other videos shed light on will make you think twice about wanting Kowloon still around
@@Silent_Soliloquiesmost likely not. Her stay there could have been traumatic itself
@DamiiLee I'm an architecture student and I also think that this city is actually quite nostalgic, maybe it´s because of the chaos many people have inside them. I read a book, where it said that Thomas Edison had an invention before the light bulb. A house built with parts of concrete made in the fabric hall.
It was not welcomed by the society back than because people want their personal freedom. They want to see something from them in the house. Not some pre fabricated house, which resembles everyone else.
The production value of this channel is astounding, I'm really impressed with the level of quality, editing and presentation.
I ended up here thanks to the algorithm and I'm so glad it was recommended to me.
So what if they're AI-generated? Do you expect them to produce the visuals themselves?
@@hafajulz The use of AI does not change the fact that their videos are extremely well written, edited, and presented. And yes, you don't find that level of quality even on today's big TV channels, so I don't understand why you bothered with it. Is this jealousy or something?
I love that everyone had their own mental map of the city. Like each person had their own version of the city and the available routes through it, very cool.
Cookies
The whole thing is cool in many ways...also horrifying
well you have to, how would you navigate otherwise...You have a mental map of your neighborhood
That already exists normally. It's just that for Kowloon, that was the _only_ way to know where anything was.
@@Seaby41 It was actually a very friendly place, and one of the safest cities in the world. If anyone is harassing you on your walk these days, it's likely to be police asking you for papers, especially during night.
The first time I saw Kowloon, it immediately felt familiar. I've grown up in a very poor family and have been neglected. And I could immediately feel that vibe emanating from the city, it felt like home. As weird as it sounds. I will remain fascinated by Kowloon for my entire life.
Anyone that tells you this isn't hell on Earth is an enemy that is trying to gaslight you into selling your car, eating bugs, saying goodbye to nature, and being crammed into a closet like space to make more space for the ruling class to have the countryside to themselves. There are plenty of studies that show that when human brains are constantly subjected to noise and in too dense of environments, stress levels rise. Reject modernity, go back to rural lands, and connect with nature and self-sufficiency.
You mean Kowloon Walled City, actual Kowloon is much bigger.
Surrounded yet alone but also connected in desperation.
@@-haclong2366 I think he's talking about the area around the main drag Jordan in Kowloon, given that the walled city was demolished in 1994, and was actually pretty far away to the north-east compared to the central parts of the Kowloon peninsula.
Wow, that hit home
I found out about Kowloon city last year, while playing an indie game called "Stray", where you play as a cat. The landscape was inspired by Kowloon. It was incredibly heart-breaking finding out about something that hasnt existed for the past 30 years. I wish they kept it 💔
that game was so nostalgic and I realize now it was on purpose. beautiful atmosphere
Me too.
The algorithm just brought me to your channel and I'm so happy! I've made a playlist now to get through your videos. Thank you for making this content!
I've always been fascinated about the Walled City. This is probably the best video I've seen that really gets into the details and logistics of how it all worked. Awesome video!
It was my dream to visit Kowloon as a kid but unfortunately they pulled it down before I could get there
this place sounds like hell on earth..............
@@CouchDoritos it’s amazing how they raised their children in an environment considered the worst for kids actually enabled the most children and decent outcomes
@@CouchDoritos "The government" defacto was the Triads controlling the city and it's reasonable to speculate they were far harsher than even Mao of that era.
@@davemeads859
It was a horrible place, like hell on Earth. Many things there I shouldn't have seen as a child!
As an engineer, what I most want to know about this place is how it avoided being burnt to the ground. Was it ever, and then rebuilt like San Francisco? Was it the brick and concrete construction? An unusually well organized community fire response? Just shear luck that nobody's cooking fire ever got out of control?
I believe at some point there was a fire there, and if I’m not mistaken that was one of the reason why the government wanted to demolish it. The risk of a bigger and more deadly fire. But it would be very interesting if it was still “alive”
and the wiringXD i was looking for this comment
In January 1950, a fire broke out that destroyed over 2,500 huts, home to nearly 3,500 families and 17,000 total people.[12] The disaster highlighted the need for proper fire prevention in the largely wooden-built squatter areas, complicated by the lack of political ties with the colonial and Chinese governments.[13] The ruins gave new arrivals to the walled city the opportunity to build anew, causing speculation that the fire may have been intentionally set.[13][14]
Id be curious if a lot of building materials werent extremely flame retardent?
It looks like alot of the construction may have been a mixture of steel, concrete, and masonry. If there is no insulation or paint there would be little fuel to take a fire from one unit to another. I have family members that live in a concrete high-rise condo building. A fire broke out in a unit a few years ago. While that unit was heavily damaged by the fire, it didn't spread to any other unit because they are all separated by the concrete, there might have been minor damage to the unit above it.
The walled city really reminded me of a hive or an ant hill. Also the houses and the chaotic maps and paths really reminded me of the game machinarium.
That is simply one of the best youtube videos i have ever seen, the quality, the topic, the voice tone , the narrative everything is perfect
Kowloon is amazing, disgusting, awe-inspiring and terrifying all at the same time.
Thanks for bringing back the memory. I grew up nearby the Kowloon Walled City . My best friend’s father was one of the builder there. I had a summer job inside the Walled City for couple months when I was 15. My sister would never walked inside the walled city since there were water bugs and rats everywhere. I thought those building were fun and unique to explore.
I have followed your channel more thank a year, but first time I leave a comment😊. Love your works!
That's so crazy.
Any other stories from what you saw inside the walls? So interesting to me.
I went to KWC in 1990 and loved it. What I loved the most was the anarchic freedom. Brothel, opium den, Mah Jong parlour, all available, as well as tailors, dentists, etc. Mind you, it took me hours to find my way out. If you want a little taste of what it was like, go and stay in Chung King Mansion, also in Kowloon.
@@larsnewbould456 hours to find your way out dammmn. Since it was 1990 I’m guessing it was pretty cleaned up by then? I always think about how many rooms that were hidden. Where someone could easily disappear. And how, to someone who didn’t HAVE to live there, it could seem really free. Thank you for sharing that with me.
@frado9194 It seemed like the dream version anarchists have, actually working. If that was cleaned up, I'd be worried to hell about it being dirty. I'm not saying I came across an opium den, and I certainly didn't lie down, and my head didn't lie upon a pillow.
I've seen a few documentaries on this city (it's fascinating), and this was a really different take on it as whole. Great work. Really appreciate the effort you put in.
I wish someone would have went through it with 3d camera, scanned everywhere and created a full virtual tour, or made the map into a video game. Thanks for all the research in brings another level of depth to this wonderful mysterious place
The scope would be enormous but if it was fully mapped somehow, you could probably have it rebuilt in Minecraft.
So interestingly enough... Call of Duty: Black Ops has a Kowloon map! Of course it's only small fraction of the city. I remember it was such a strange place it made me do some research on it :D
@@magnesium12 You could recreate it based off of its contents and number of buildings. The sizing might be off, but it could most certainly be done.
This was by far the best, most interesting and nuanced look I've ever seen of Kowloon Walled City. I've been fascinated by it for ~20 years but never really found much English information about it. Thank you so much for your hard work!
I remember being extremely fascinated with this city as a kid. My parents thought I was just piecing together legos randomly, not figuring out I was building my own mini Kowloon cities. I thought it reminded me of Cybertron and loved the way it was just interconnected, and how one turn can lead you to a secret chamber or building etc.
It does seem like Cybertron.
I’m surprised sci fi writers haven’t given this city any credit, from Trantor, Coriscant, Blade Runner, and of course Cybertron.
@@albatross1977Coruscant is far more complex and less dense than Kowloon.
This would be an interesting MMORPG. With the entire game inside a living growing city with all it's pros and cons.@@albatross1977
@@eeurr1306 beep beep star wars fanboy detected
I was in Kowloon in 2002, hitched a ride with the US Navy aboard the USS Blueridge and hung out there for about a month. It was quite the experience... But I had a great time believe it or not. The Chinese nationals pointed and giggled at me during the day, by night me and my battle buddies were like rock stars in the clubs. Definitely got some scary looks at night, we were young, felt invincible, I'm glad we all made it back to Japan safe and in one piece.
I just saw your Kowloon video on Tiktok and found my way here. So glad I found your content it's made my week, so interesting! ❤️
Ugh, I love your channel. I can finally understand why I have such a fascination with these kinds of structures. I've been playing the game 'Stray' and I found myself obsessed with how many points of connection there can be in such a crowded city, as well as the touch of neon lights everywhere. I've always been curious as to why such a dystopian looking city layout is so appealing, and your videos just explain everything so well 😄
Stray, the game, was inspired by this. Very good game though have not played it.
I loved Stray! only wish it was longer so I could explore more!
That game was the best!
We are a bunch of Urban Planning students from India. During one of the lectures, we had a discussion about the quantum of valuable land we underutilize due to setbacks/margins in an urban fabric. We were thrown with an example of Kowloon Walled City as a unique and challenging Idea and how it functions without any regulations controlling its growth. Your video was a very comprehensive in explaining the life of this city, further opening our eyes to view them as a living, breathing organism with a very old but energetic soul. Thank you to you and your team for this amazing curation.😘
That's great!
Where are you studying?
The land in Kowloon was not under-utilised, it was very well utilised but with no value. The value is generated by the efficiency where you can get more with less, in urbanization this is even more important.
Kowloon is an example of how the lack of regulation and planning creates entropy. Nature purposes is to dissipate energy so every natural behaviour human or not will dissipate energy. There are ways to channel that energy and increasing efficiency is one.
Kowloon lacks of planning means that it is less efficient that any other urban area and therefore less competitive in terms of production, quality of life and utility.
While it seems nice, the issue is clearly that without order, people can be taken advantage of. And that generally starts with the prime real estate and resource areas, until you essentially have thugs controlling the water access and shaking shops down for money. This is somewhat mitigated by the chaos of it all, but no one really owned anything, they were all just setting up shop where they pleased, and that means others could also do the same, even if someone else was already there. Now imagine you're running one of those little shops, and someone decides to set one up just 20ft from you but closer to an entrance. Suddenly your shop might be more of a slight inconvenience to go to, and now you're out of business.
Then someone does the same to that shop, until "efficiency" is maximized. Except all the chaos that causes in the ebb and flow of economics, can actually be worse overall for the health of the local community in general, especially when people are going into financial ruin over slight trivialities. And once that efficiency is maximized, those prime areas of operation are established, which makes them prime for fighting over, which leads to feudalism and people feeling they have a personal right to what is essentially a public space, no different than homeless people that setup in a bus stop shed and see people passing by and coming in to sit down, as trespassers encroaching on their territory.
And probably one of the biggest problems is when every space is treated as communal, nothing is owned specifically by anyone, which means their personal view of what they are responsible for doesn't extend to these areas. So things like trash pile up, bad construction that falls apart is left as a danger and an eyesore. Nothing gets maintained except as absolutely needed, and only when it serves a significant personal use to that person, while everything else decays. Just an entire city of people who think "That's not my problem". So a new shop might open up in an area that is in ruin, because no one wants it because the area is a mess, so they do only just enough to allow them to operate their shop.
I'd also imagine there were some traps created, that essentially funnel people to their shops by altering the access ways, which could actually lead to less efficiency. It's easy to consider people would have schemes like that, where they'd look at all the access points, reroute or block some of them, so that people have to pass by their shops. So what might look like efficiency, is actually a manipulation. I'd also imagine this even went as far as people altering paths to block out competing shops. So things weren't quite as organic as people think.
Your assumption is that people operate quite individualistically. Studies show that when people own resources in commune, they are actually more well taken care of. So this is probably a false assumption.
@@stretchasmr7688 That's not true at all. In China, it's a culture of "not my problem". They don't see anything outside of their immediate living space as their responsibility. This is a big part of Chinese culture. It's why people can be hit by cars or assaulted in the street and no one will come to help. It's all seen as not their problem. Same with living spaces, where you have Chinese apartment complexes that have shared areas like walkways and elevators. They won't even chip in to fix anything, even if it personally benefits them, if it's not something that solely benefits them. So everything erodes. That's why the city itself was torn down. It was just garbage built on garbage until the foundations crumbled. Chinese culture has little concept of maintaining things, it's more about using things until they decay and then building new on top of the rubble.
Ive always loved going through dark narrow alleys, overgrown lots, between buildings, ive been on top of most of the buildings in my hometown. And ive worked in several factories that were massive, a sawmill with catwalks and crawl spaces and two story drops. I find every nook and cranny everywhere i am able to without getting in trouble. I work in a hotel that is 3 stories 63 rooms 5 big storage rooms outside utilitie rooms boss's personal records, plus storage closets and we have a box storage unit that we added last year, plus several permanently closed rooms we store things in. The owner, maintenance, housekeeping, front desk, laundry and guest ask for anything i know exactly what is in each. But it is because I like to look around, im curious, and I love exploring where no one else likes to go. Dirty dusty places, hot dead air, gotta put on a coat? No problem. But it is all organized in squares and rectangles, and sometimes i find shortcuts. It is completely different to have a 3D up down left right diagonal through over under .. i have really bad ADHD, which fuels my exploration and why I can remember where every single item is but not what I wanted off the housekeeping cart. Even if I packed several meals, i would die lost or become some weird sort of pseudo nomad.
Fascinating this blew me away that is even a thing that happened and the people were like no problem! Its home!
This is one of my favourite videos! I didn't know Architecture organisms could be so interesting! Thank you Dami!
我係香港人，我出世(70’s)到現在，從來未到九龍城寨，拆遷之後我只見一個休閑公園。多謝你找到那麼多的城寨歷史資料，非常吸引⋯⋯Thank you for sharing our real HK!👍👍👍
Millions of people live in places that are amazing. But they never explore it. NYers who’ve never been to see Lady Liberty or MOMA! I tell people to treat their home like they are a tourist. Explore your front door.
You are ccp owned
Hong Kong died years ago
@@brentbeacham9691Yeah I'm German and actually only been twice to Berlin, our capital city where remnants of the Berlin Wall can be found.
It's a country rich in history but I can't say I've been traveling much within.
I've lived here from 3,5 year old to 5 (born in the Netherlands in 1984) because they had announced the demolition and my mom had to arrange a new place for grandma.
Even though I don't remember any real details, what stays is a feeling of connectivity, of having everything close by. You instinctively learned your way, depending on what you and your family needed. Grown-ups would teach you where you could or could not go. So even though there were a lot of crime and unsavory places, the community would not let children 'find' their way to those spots.
I guess you could say that your experience there is different for every person. My uncle, who was more on the unsavory side, would have had a very different map than I did at that time.
Let's not forget that living there, meant you would get used to the noise of all the airplanes going right over the city. You could see the faces of the people inside the airplanes, that's how close they were flying over. The height of Kowloon city was maxed out, because otherwise the planes couldn't land.
It was beautiful chaos, only made possible because of all the political weirdness at the beginning and during its time. A refugee place for people who managed to escape communism (dad). A starting place for people to venture out over the world because Hongkong was 'free'
It still blows my own mind that I've lived there tbh
You should really write your memories down, since this place is not a place anymore and I doubt there will ever be another- your memories are very valuable to certain people. I am very curious about the community, like you said you and your uncle had different maps and you said they wouldn't let children roam in the bad areas.
Ive been fascinated with Kowloon for more than a decade and this video is easily the best content Ive seen on it. (Ive also struggled to understand Guattari and Deleuze and Rhizome theory for probably just as long and this was an extraordinarily illuminating metaphor!) Thanks for making this.
This was educational, refreshing, and so well done. Thank you so much for this work.
I've seen a lot of videos covering Kowloon. This is by far one of the most extensive explanations. While many just broadly cover the romanticism and the grittiness of the city, this video really dives into the nuances of the social aspects of the city. Thank you for that.
It was a horrible scary slum. I knew it well; you don't want to go into a place like that in your life. Some residents got to "love" it because they didn't have any choice, so they adapted to it, and it became their habit.
You lived there?
Makes sense. Im surprised that its still alive.
@@codeimagine6824
Back in the early 1970s, when I was a kid, my parents ran a shop on the outskirts of Walled City, and we lived in the back of the shop. I frequently walked alone through the Walled City to school at the other edge of the city, and I occasionally watched TV outside a restaurant within the city; most people couldn't afford a TV back then. I remember where I've been, and it's a very scary place for today's normal kids and even adults.
Inside the Walled City was a dark, ugly dump unfit for human habitation, but it was a far better place than the slums of modern-day India and the Philippines! It's shocking to see that there are still real bad slums in today's world. Democracy does not solve anything. Today's socialist Hong Kong is one of the best cities in Asia, if not the world; it has a low crime rate, good government social welfare and subsidized housing for the poor, a much better police force, and well-maintained public infrastructures.
The Walled City is no longer there, it's replaced by a beautiful public park.
@@fixsationon7244
No, the Walled City no longer exists, it was torn down and land cleared by the government and tuned it into a public park about 30 years ago.
Your reaction makes more sense than reactions mentioned in this video....This place was a breeding ground for sin and depravity. Anyone who liked it was deep in the sin. It's dark and dirty.
Amazing video. You made me feel nostalgic for a place I've never been before. You made me feel a sense of loss for a place that I'll never be able to visit
I used to go to a school almost across the street from here. feels cool to have a youtube video talk about it!
These architecture videos are always so well-made and thoughtful. If Dami Lee and her team made a full documentary on something like Kowloon, I'm sure it would be popular
could be on netflix!
@@TheSupersayan6Seriously, Netflix should do a whole series on Kowloon and rebuild it using sets and CGI or maybe just do an animated show. I think it’d be an instant hit. There’s so much they could do with it.
I'd heard of Kowloon Walled City but I didn't really know what it WAS. Now I realize (as a fan of cyberpunk) I've seen it hundreds of times in fictional form (and I feel like it lives on, there). This was fascinating. Oddly, this also makes me think of things like London cab drivers' Knowledge, or the Jim Crow era Negro Motorist Green Book. Knowing how to get around efficiently and safely is about so much more than lines on a map.
I can say it was a glorious place to go... I've been there way back in 1983..you could travel the entire place without touching the ground...every now and then I get a whiff of a smell and I'm instantly back there .and my family had and used the green book way back then.. I know what sun down towns are and I've had deals with the KKK..been to Klan rallies.. unknowingly walked through one..even got on stage with the guy wearing purple...made fun of all of them and walked down the center when I left..about 500 Klan members..
Both of these comments are amazing! ^ Also a definitive Yes on seeing this city concept in many Manga and fiction, the UnderDark of the Forgotten Realms books comes to mind..
I like how in the game Shadowrun, not only is Kowloon Walled City still around but there's an in-universe explanation for why it's so crime ridden (no spoilers, but figuring out why is the plot of the entire game)
Honestly. It is a nightmare for one reason. No plumbing, or electricity everywhere.
If it had that, and was clean? I'd love a place where you lived in a dense area with most of my needs in it close by. Especially if it had like, more sun, and skyways.
Have a super wal mart, bakery, butcher, liquor store, and bank. Restaurants. Multiple small shops within the five mile building.
Would be awesome. It is like we build vertical, but we don't use it correctly.
I don't need a green yard or house. Although I'd definitely want a balcony or access to one quickly.
@@dianapennepacker6854 This, I actually would love to live in something close to this that's actually regulated and more intentionally created.
Perhaps split it up into square blocks with connections to other blocks and intervening green zones and such inbetween and I'd go in a heartbeat.
This was absolutely fascinating. My first video from your channel because of the short for this video. Definitely intend to check out more and hope to be just as fascinated with the others!
Just found this channel. Absolutely love it!!! The topics, the transparency of research...all of it!!!! 👏👏👏 amazing work
This place has permeated pop culture in such a way that, even though I had never heard any more than its name and I knew nothing about it, I still felt a strong sense of familiarity with it, through Chinese and Japanese media.
And, in fact, one of the main locations in the sci-fi story I'm writing is already an unofficial successor to Kowloon. And I didn't even know it.
Ok, now I'm obsessed and I need to know everything about it.
Check out a book called “Chasing The Dragon” by Jackie Pullinger.
welcome to the club looool
been consuming every available piece of media ever since i’ve learned about it’s existence. and yeah, i remember feeling a strong sense of familiarity and personal internal alignment with the whole essence of the place, as well as its already being present in some rudimentary form in certain creative projects of mine.
really, though it was about ~7 years ago, but damn, i gotta say that the intensity with which it strikes every time i stumble upon some random dedicated piece of content remains the same to this day for me. absolutely fascinating shit
I love history and I’d sit and just listen for hours if I ever found someone who lived here. I’d love to know their mindset and the feelings they had during this time and as weird as it sounds I’d love to know if it felt safe and like home to them because we as humans seem to find comfort in some of the worst conditions that some can’t understand.
Keep writing! We still need imaginary cities as much as we need the real thing. (PS I started with sci-fi and am still going. Look me up. Mssg if you want to, allok)
The story of Kowloon City transcends genre and individual scientific disciplines like no other. An attempt to truly understand this unique place requires an understanding of many disciplines and deserves significantly more academic attention than it has gotten in the past. I would love to see a thorough assessment done of Kowloon involving economists, architects, anthropologists, geographers, sociologists, psychologists, and political scientists. Only then can we truly begin to decipher the depth and complexity of the lessons this city had to offer.
agreed !
Well, if it's going to happen, I hope it happens soon. Every year that passes, more memories will be lost.
yes, I think the spirit of this place has certainly had an effect. The things we learn. Living infrastructure, rapid adaptability, it's very plant-like. I think as long as we can take notes about this place, even if it's dead, could still bring life to research long down the road.
Geography especially, since it can encompass almost every other field of study. Though I'd be curious what psychologists and even neurobiologists would make of it. Could it be mapped sort of like a brain?
why am i getting emotional over a city from the past? love this channel
As soon as you mentioned that the city was not possible to be mapped by conventional means, I instantly thought - well, not for human brains. They can map it in their own personal way.
You cannot imagine my wide smile of approval, when you brought it up as the main point of argument and how it relates to the actual feeling of place.
It resonated with me that you did absolutely the best job on psychological and social research of this phenomenon. Truly well done job.
I understand the "beauty" of places like this. I live in Brazil and by observing our slums it's fascinating how things function
I was thinking the same thing.
what is so fascinating to me is how the gangs come together toserve their community. You think of a gang you think of violence and turf wars and injured bystanders. You never really think of how a gangs have been known to go out of their way to serve their communities just as the triad in Kowloon did.
@@lessoriginalit’s partly how they gather power and support from the community. They flourish where regular social structure fail, providing what the government doesn’t. It’s a strategic investment, both in the system and in the future generations of the gang.
@@MorganaDAlmeida from a certain point of view, governments are just the biggest, toughest gang around.
@@MorganaDAlmeida Ahh, that makes sense.
Absolutely fantastic video. It blew my mind! Congratulations DamiLee, you´re simply marvelous!
Absolutely incredible! I had no idea such an amazing place existed. Thank you for sharing. Great perspective and view on the subject. Love your videos Dami, keep up the amazing work!
Fascinating bit of history and culture. I couldn’t help but wonder how bad the roach and rat population was in that crammed city.
They had outbreaks of the bubonic plague...regularly.
Yeah, and what would happen if there was a fire.
@@mtmadigan82 Reference?
you don't understand, we aren't trapped inside here with the rats, THE RATS ARE TRAPPED INSIDE WITH US
Remember demolition man? That burger you are eating, do you see any cows around here?
I have no ties to architecture but am forever fascinated by both it, and the human condition in general. And Kowloon has been leaving me in awe ever since I learned of its existence, or perhaps even before, as I came across pop-culture references decades before I knew what it was. It's just an amazing construct, in a sense the most modern we will ever see, and it existing in parallel to the space age is not a coincidence. It gives us answers to many questions with real-life examples that most people don't dare to ask. The giant body of living buildings, the romantic notion of the emerging community of a closed-world and the children born into it, and the somberingly unhealthy and crime-infested system all just... sound so familiar somehow.
As a computer gamer it does seem familiar because the essence has been caught in so many dystopian themed games. It seems so futuristic but was literally buzzing away there for most of the last century with around 35,000 people at it's population peak. I'm interested in what you mean when you said it is no coincidence that it existed in parallel to the space age.
It's basically the hood but more tightly packed into a smaller area. Your fascination with it is similar to fascination with GTA SA: curiosity and propaganda. The Soviet Russian equivalent is Kommunalka
I just found your channel. Omg I love your approach to all your videos. So informative and emotional. You’re so knowledgeable and I genuinely enjoy learning from you. I am in cybersecurity and didn’t take many or any history or architecture courses in college. It is so interesting to learn things from the world’s history and how things came to be. Everything really does and did have a reason behind it.
Why we don't have a GTA Kowloon, I'll never know.
That would be so amazing
I remember seeing something on TV about Kowloon when I was a kid in the 80's. I was instantly fascinated and have been ever since. Who were the electricians? Who did the plumbing? I have so many questions about how they did things and what was going on.
I have watched several videos regarding Kowloon City but this is by far the best of all of them. I like how you tackled the other side of how the city works in terms of the people and how it might have worked on the inside architecturally like the small nodes of convenience stores just by the stairs. It is interesting how society thrives in a different way no matter what type of environment they are in.
Agreed I've bought expensive books on the subject too and this video is truly fascinating.
Kowloon city ≠ Kowloon walled city
It makes me to happy to hear about the history of the city I grew up in. Thank you for researching all this and providing your resources and notes. I look forward to reading them. 🙏🙏🙏
Amazing juxtaposing conversations within a time capsule. Beautiful done, 💖thank you!
I've always myself been fascinated with Kowloon. It's a very cool concept and part of that appeal is why people do urban exploring. Visiting places that others used to live in or are drastically different from what we're used to from normal society. The other interesting aspect of it is that I believe it's proof that it's ultimately the people that are the soul of the city. If there wasn't anyone there, it'd feel like a dungeon. But the people there are what made the place feel surprisingly comforting and warm even though the images of it without people are anything but. It's probably the reason why there's some pushback on more modern city designs and why people aren't too keen on the more modernistic architectural choices made to some major cities. They focus on carving out more private spaces from the more and more limited space available. The design segregates people into smaller and smaller groups creating a sense of disconnection despite the masses of people around you. It's this sterile feeling that sanitizes the humanity out of the location. Kowloon had this dirty, grungy, almost hellish conditions but was extremely enticing because it pushed the people and the community to the forefront.
As a mechanical engineer myself and as an architect yourself, you'd probably agree that the city wasn't going to last much longer as it was anyways. The original bottom layers weren't designed to go up that far vertically and bear that much weight. They did a decent job shifting that load laterally, but in many of the pictures shown, you could see areas where the bottom levels were starting to buckle and the whole column of rooms were starting to lean over a bit. Other photos and some video cameo scenes like from the Bloodsport movie showed poor drainage with human waste being tossed out and making its way to the bottom floors. Several of the photos showed extensive water buildup and damage with extensive mold growths on the walls and ceiling on the bottom level. The foundational levels of the city were in disrepair and fairly overloaded. Those newer stairs portions were reinforcing and offsetting a lot of the load, but you could already tell by photos from towards the end of the city's life that it was aging and well past the point of no return.
I believe that was ultimately why Hong Kong decided to demo it, besides the eyesore aspect of it. It became a ticking timebomb to potentially become one of the worst mass casualty events of modern times and it would have been entirely preventable. So, they forcefully evacuated everyone out and demoed the city. Seeing old videos of the demo, for its size, it didn't seem to take very much to actually drop the city itself. Kind of proving that the city was on its last legs.
I can't find the source anymore, but there were extensive video recordings of the tour just prior to demoing the city and just how different the city looked with everyone gone. I believe someone had even done a side by side of some of the more popular spots with and without people and just how different everything felt. Even though it was just a few days after evacuation, the city looked like it was dead for decades. It's interesting how just having people living in a building keeps the building feeling alive and how people leaving seems to cause the buildings to deteriorate, especially so quickly.
Thanks for commenting! That gave more context to an already informative video. I don’t know why I’m so hungry for any scrap of information on this place. It definitely has a way of drawing people in.
Holy fuck man this a whole ass book, man this city was fascinating makes me wanna explore the world
As a Landscape Architect I love these videos. The production value, research, presentation, variety of topics, sound, editing....Very informative. Thank you.
Beautiful documentary, thank you so much for sharing with us!
At the same time, it’s both claustrophobic and vital! This could be a short documentary. Your content is always premium level. You explain such complicated concepts, structures and strategies in a way that I can understand and allows me to appreciate them on a deep and human way. I am such a fan!
Went to Kowloon in '95, so I must have just missed the walled city. So much of HK was being demolished and built simultaneously, the city itself was like a giant cell regenerating itself.
I was so excited for the story at first, then you mentioned how it'd been demolished and for some reason... That made me sad. A place so unique and alive and now it's just... Gone. I'm glad videos and books exist on it. It should be remembered.
It was not a great place to live and any notion of romanticism is misguided. In agreement with China prior to 1997 it was demolished and residents housed in better accommodation. I was a commander in RHKP Emergency Unit at the time it was cleared and there was some resistance but most people were happy to live in more sanitised apartments with running water, electricity, bathrooms and hygiene - all missing in the WC - you wouldn’t want to live there.
Now it is a beautiful park with a very interesting museum about the walled city.
Yes - I consider myself fortunate to have explored it as a police inspector - but HK moves on and has always done so. It’s a superb city and don’t believe all the negative spin from the western governments and their lackey mainstream media. Although I am English - Hong Kong is my home and it’s a superb place to call home
@@RupertUtley I was referring to the idea of a city that was fully connected. I've lived in similar places in terms of accommodations to the WC. No water, no electric. Definitely not good.
And I love HK. I think it's a beautiful place with amazing culture. Not all westerners are ignorant of the beauty from the east.
I think the explosive pace of development surrounding this city doomed it. It looked trashy fromthe outside.
@RupertUtley reminds me of a trailer park on an american indian reservation I lived in for a couple months. It sustained itself much like Kawloons. It grew from a handful of trailers to over 300. It was a small town that had such low living standards that it ended up on national news, everyone there was relocated as well. I moved out by the time that happened though.
My Dad's Brother and one of his Sister's family along with 3 of my cousins and my Grandma use to live there until the government relocated them to 藍田
This is a piece of information that is just beautiful. Now I understand many references for animation and even some western movies. Not just that but to have this history is so incredible!! Thank you so much.
Amazing work, one of the few videos I have seen that left me awestruck.
Thoroughly enjoyed this look at the Walled City. My girlfriend at the time, wife now, was a flight attendant based out of Hong Kong and lived on the Kowloon side. This was back in the early nineties. She would tell me stories of events that happened or were supposed to have happened in and around the Walled City. People walking into the maze and never exiting. Stories of rooms closed off and hidden passages containing only what your imagination could dream-up! She left Hong Kong shortly after the city was demolished.
Oh, that composite shot at 12:48; the timing the dialogue the closing mood of the video gave me chills. Well done!
I'd LOVE to read more about this. Some stories, the little tales of surreal life or just daily life there.
I'd love to see a video game taking place in a world similar to Kowloon Walled City, where one meets people and forms routes as described in the video to build memories. While the city starts with pale or even monochrome tones, as more people are met and befriended and the chosen route is repeatedly traveled, said route becomes visually colorful and audibly starts to play music that is formed by lively sounds of all things going on around the area - thus creating a stark contrast between the pale unknown and the colorful known. Each player forms a route that is unique to them and nobody experiences the game quite the same. AI no doubt could play a part in generating the vastly unique life in the simulated city where there is intentionally too much to do to finish in a lifetime. Anthropologists and architects could learn a lot by observing how people explore this world too. But maybe this is just the game designer in me getting enthusiastic.
There's a sci-fi visual novel called Citizen: Sleeper, and there's a "Lowend" region you get to by the midgame that appears to be heavily inspired by Kowloon. Many regions that you encounter in the game have to actually be explored by your character first, before you meet people and find opportunities There is a central "Yatagan" gang that serves as the local government, when the overall station government doesn't patrol there whatsoever, and the way the gang collects "tithes" is by way of services performed for the community.
how would you 'gameify' travel or traversing the city?
Actually this is my dream too. I did my final thesis on something similar to Kowloon. After the year was finished i ported it into Unreal Engine 5 to explore it. Unfortunately, the model used is very inefficient and resource-heavy. But as a concept for a game, I really loved it and it had so much potential.
I have bigger dreams at the moment, but I would like in future to approach someone to develop this game concept.
Cmon guys. There's that game "Stray" where you traverse a city much like Kowloon, as a cat...
part of Shenmue II takes place in KWC, afair
Thank you for introducing me to Milanote. I have been searching for a similar mind-mapping system but didn't know about specifically this one. Will be using it now!
I love your videos and I'm super fascinated with Kowloon I'm glad you made a video talking about it ❤
the kowloon walled city and deleuze & guattari are collectively two of my greatest interests right now, and i'm absolutely ELATED to watch a video like this.
kinda weird how the algorithm shapes so much of our interests
it's legit like six keywords lol @@F3XT
it's the most fascinating thing, almost like as if even humans can do that trick plants do when you have almost no room to grow, but still manage to find a way to anyhow!!
those citizens were thinking way out of the box -- yes, I said that... XD
@@F3XT i've actually known about these two things for a while before seeing this video. it's just serendipity that it's been published right now at tbe crux of my interest
@@punkser me too, I'm not currently in any peak of interest in deleuze & guattati, I also just happen to be subscribed and watch some of Dami Lees videos, but I think there's a lot of things interconnected by content on the algorithm, also for some reason yesterday I went back to play the yugioh deck Virtual World which is about a technological Kowloon Walled City lol. I think it's safe to assume there's at least some kind of algorithmical incentive to post a video like this one since other ones about Kowloon blew up too, and I don't doubt social media algorithms shake our opinions a lot, be it good or bad
This channel is elevated above the rest by the thoughtful touches you and your team add. The 2-sided explanation of Rhizomes and the composited shot at 12:48 help make this otherwise educational video emotionally resonant.
Ooooo thanks for this comment! I went back to the time stamp to watch several times.... what a cool shot!
You and your team are amazing.
Thank you so much ❤
I've studied the city years ago, I love the place. Its like a dream. I am sad it's gone. There really is not alot of content on the place or maybe I just want more. Thank you for doing a video on the beautiful walled city ❤
As a Canadian who never really got away till recently, I travelled to Hong Kong for my first time 11 years ago for 10 days, with a couple ladies from my new home Thailand. Your video was really well produced, researched, and is fascinating. I stayed in the Mirador Mansion, a fascinating vibrant transient atrium style guesthouse apartment building in Tsim Sha Tsui. Your passageway description reminds me a lot of my initial experience of finding my way through Mirador from floor to floor and side to side. Thanks for instilling a fresh desire to revisit Hong Kong and explore the area with a new historical understanding.
There's another building like Mirador called Chungking Mansions. Dense & heavily populated, with a warren of passageways & nooks, with shops & businesses all around. In fact, Hong Kong likely has plenty of building complexes like these.
You continue to amaze! Having lived 9 years in HK till 1968 - with the Cultural revolution brewing in mainland communist China and the British trying to maintain confidence that HK would not become and anarchy - these were years that I consider the best years in the social-economic development of HK - and possibly the golden years. `And I never had a chance to visit the walled city of Kowloon. Appreciate the enlightened discourse and we could learn much from this. Thank you.
Amazing segment. 👍
I love her narrative! It really does tele-transport to that dimension! Loved it! Thank you 🙏
I feel that it's important to remember cities like Kowloon. There's something that I find so beautiful about a place like that. Kowloon, I feel, was the embodiment of the human spirit! Our will to survive against all odds. I'm a writer and I hope to capture the spirit of Kowloon in a story someday.
There's a video game called Stray that I believe really captures the spirit of Kowloon, as you say!! I reccomend looking at it for inspiration if you are hoping to write a book! It's a beautiful game 🥰
I once lived in a place utterly unlike Kowloon but it had one feature in common: within a short walking distance, there was everything you needed and the 'social density' of the place was the greatest I have ever known. Social density, I think, is one feature that gives Kowloon so much of its "romance".
@johnrobinson4445 Definitely! I love the idea of a place having everything you need. School, store, doctors' offices, and nightclub, all in the same massive structure.
Read neuromancer
This whole sity really feels like some kind of nightmare, not because its bad but because it really has all those qualities, its chaotic, seemingly infinite and it has all those elements being where they seemingly shouldn't be, looking at its corridors feels like your in a dream, walking down them trying to find the exit or like its some made up picture from the backrooms.
This was such a fascinating watch! I had heard mention of the Walled City a few times but actually going in depth of how things were really shed a light on how life was there. The fact that they had a fully functional organized chaos in itself is a beautiful image. The whole dynamic could have been completely different had either government stepped in to assist in their growth. But with them being left to their own devices it created a symbiotic hive where a touch more organization could have made this an epicenter. Thank you for this great video!
I am so glad that I came across this channel. It's absolutely amazing and informative.
My introduction to Kowloon came from a Japanese video game series Shenmue, an old Sega franchise which follows a young man in the 1980's seeking to avenge his murdered father, a Japanese dojo master with personal ties in China. As he travels he encounters various martial artists who teach him new fighting techniques until he eventually finds himself in Kowloon. Fascinating to learn more about this unique city's history and idiosyncrasies.
Best video game franchise ever. Dreamcast best most underrated platform ever too
@@mojojojo6400
The Dreamcast was the console that achieved arcade perfection first.
This reminds me of Whittier, Alaska, where while it's very much not as densely populated as the Kowloon Walled City was, almost all of Whittier's residents live in just one building. After WWII, the US military planned to develop a large complex in the Whittier area. They first built the Hodge Building in 1953 to house the US Army Corps of Engineers, and then the Buckner Building. They were supposed to build more, but they didn't. The US Army were active there until 1960. The Buckner Building was abandoned in 1966, and so the Begich Towers became a condominium which was renamed as such in 1972.
The US Army selected Whittier as a rail port during WWII because it was a shorter voyage, reduced exposure of ships to Japanese submarines, reduced the risk of Japanese bombing the port facilities because of the bad weather, and avoided the steep railroad grades required to traverse the Kenai Mountains. To connect Whittier, the military built the Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel at 2.5 miles long, the first designed for -40 Fahrenheit temperatures and 150 mph winds, and the first to be aired out with jet turbine ventilation. It was turned into a road-rail tunnel in 2000 as a way to better connect Whittier to the rest of Alaska. It was done this way instead of building a separate tunnel for cars as a cost-saving measure.
an apartment building that's weirdly sized in proportion to the towns population, oooo spooky hahaha.
I saw a documentary on that once. They showed a few of the apartments as well as a lot of the group areas. It was really kinda cool. Residents are very close unlike most places now days.
Wow, this is the First Video that I watched from this channel and I loved the detailed and interesting research and explanation, I am very intreeged to see more
My love for your content is most unexpected but very welcome. Keep them coming🙏ty!
my fascination with places like this started with Freetown Christiania in Denmark (also built on a former military base, self-governed, people built their own structures, etc, not NEAR this place though). When I first read about Kowloon I was struck with awe that such a place could exist. It's just so incredible to me that people made it work.
I was in the UK army posted to Hong Kong in 1974/75 and when visiting HK from the base in the New territories it always amazed me that no plane landing or taking off from Kai Tak airport never crashed into the walled city considering that peopled on the plane could actually see into the buildings apartments as they we're so low and the only approach to land on the single runway.
And did u go to the headquarters of administration in New Territories? It was situated in Tai Po, New Territories. Alongside there was a marine police station.
As an American I would like to thank the SAS
Thanks for creating such a fascinating documentary!
Fantastic video, thank you for making it, as for Kowloon city I wish I had the chance to visit it
I had the luck to witness the Kowloon walled city and saw it coming down. Used to play at the park outside when I was small but too scared to go inside. The walled city is like one piece of gigantic building and inspired a lot of movies and anime years after.
Hopefully we'll see new videos soon. About Kowloon, It looked like an incredibly dangerous fire trap. Someone who grows up there as a child would have no problem navigating it and memorizing the different places, but as an adult I think it would be more of a challenge.
Safety regulations, as they say, are written in blood
Kowloon did have people who worked to prevent fires. The triads in particular would have been heavily invested in preventing the city from burning down
@@Endwankery that's literally peak capitalism, having businesses fund essential services because it's cheaper than the alternative lol
Not just fires but also disease. Would've been dangerous during covid spread too.
@@AriaHarmonydid you see the videos on the coffin homes essentially like a 7’ x 2’ box people sleep in as their home and people had to quarantine in those 😖
My god this was so well done. Subbed because of it! Thank you
Your videos are fantastic: storytelling, creativity, good research, clear explanations and more. Thank you. ✌🏽🤗