Kowloon Walled City: A Chaotic Yet Thriving Civilization

By Karson Chuang

Introduction

The Kowloon Walled City was the densest city on earth, located in central Kowloon, Hong Kong. It was the harbor home of tens of thousands of squatters, immigrants, and refugees from all over the world, with it providing a place to stay for refugees, whose countries were plagued by war or economic collapse. It had an area of 2.6 hectares of land, 26,000 square meters, and 0.026 square kilometers. This small patch of land, housed over 50,000 people with some estimates going up to 60,000 people in 1990, which gave it a population density of 2,300,000 per square kilometer (5,960,000 people per square mile), compared to the current most densely populated city, which is Manila with 42,900 people per square kilometer (113,000 people per square mile), is a considerable population difference. To put it into context, that is 2.3 people per square meter, which means there are more than 2 people for every square meter. To make it easier, the average size of an apartment in Hong Kong is 484 square feet (45 square meters), so imagine your home with around 90 people living in it. This goes to show the crazy density, but other than being a superdense crime slum, it also has a historic and chilling history.

History of the Kowloon Walled City

Song Dynasty (宋朝) (960 AD - 1279 AD): The city could be traced back to the early Song Dynasty when the Song government used it as a salt mining area and military base, as studies and historians suggest that Hong Kong once had a large salt industry and had massive salt mines.

Qing Dynasty (清朝) (1644 AD - 1912 AD): During the rule of the Qing Dynasty, they built a yamen; a traditional Chinese fort, and stationed 30 guards to guard the city in 1668 AD, in 1810 AD, they further expanded the city by building a coastal fort in it. In 1842 AD, Hong Kong Island became a British territory after the Qing’s loss in the First Opium War. Later, the city was captured by rebels of Hong Xiuquan’s Taiping rebellion in 1854 AD, then recaptured by the Qing a few weeks later. In 1898 AD, all of Hong Kong was ceded to the British on a 99-year lease. In 1899, the British troops invaded the Walled City and killed hundreds of people.

British Rule (1898 - 1940): In 1912, the Qing Dynasty, the last dynasty of China would collapse leaving Hong Kong to the British. The British didn’t have much interest in the Walled City, so it was just left to grow by itself. The Kowloon Walled City technically didn’t belong to either China or the British. In 1937, the Japanese began the invasion of Manchuria and captured Hong Kong and other coastal provinces in 1940.

Japanese Rule (日本帝国) (1940 - 1945): In 1937, the Second Sino-Japanese War between Nationalist China and the now fascist-led Japanese Empire went to war when Japan invaded Manchuria from the Korean peninsula. In 1939, the Japanese Empire gained control of all of Manchuria and in 1940, they controlled eastern coastal provinces and Hong Kong. They would destroy the Kowloon Walled City’s walls and use them to expand Kai Tak Airport so Japanese fighter jets could land there. By 1940, only the yamen, the school, and one house remained.

Independent City (1945 - 1993): In 1945, the Republic of China intended to reclaim the city and created the ‘Draft Outline Plan for Reinstatement of Administration’. Over 2,000 squatters were inhabiting the city by 1947. The British government pronounced a hands-off rule in which the Walled City would develop on its own and police would be restricted to establish order in the city. Due to this, the city began expanding massively, the Chinese squatters worked fast and diligently, using low-cost materials such as concrete to build the town up, and it quickly became a massive block of buildings.

The city had no laws under Hong Kong police, and despite a few police raids, it had absolutely no laws. So in the late 1950s, triads rapidly expanded in the Walled City. 2 notable triads, Sun Yee On and their rival 14K, quickly rose to power and established order in the city.

In the 1960s, the city underwent mass construction, with developers and people living in the city expanding it massively, building more modules on top of older buildings. It grew and grew into a massive structure. It was like a country with no rules, yet still had order. At its peak, over 300 buildings occupied an area of 26,000 square meters. Government officials stated that the Walled City had to have a maximum height of 13-14 stories as any higher would block the takeoff runway of the Kai Tak airport.

There were high crime rates in the city, with police only entering in large groups due to the dangerous triads. Multiple murders happened in the city. Also, many Chinese immigrants moved to the city in 1949 after Communism took over China.

In 1955, when the Vietnam War broke out, thousands of Vietnamese fled Vietnam and held refuge in the Walled City, further increasing its population to nearly 60,000.

In 1973, police raided the city arresting over 2,500 people and confiscating over 1.8 tonnes worth of drugs (1800 kg or 4000 lbs). With public support and ever-growing hatred of drug use, these police raids would carry on, over time, decreasing drug use and eroding violence within the city. They would also raid the nearby squatter village, Sau Tau Tsuen, which stood right next to the Walled City.

Demolition (1993-1994): The Walled City was demolished in 1993 when the government decided to take apart the city. Even though it was a thriving civilization, the surrounding land had already become much more developed, and Hong Kong’s government was also running short on money and the Kowloon Walled City was composed of billions of dollars worth of materials.

In 1984, the Sino-British Joint Declaration created the plan for the city’s destruction, and in 1987, the Chinese government and the British government announced the demolition of the city.

In 1993, thousands of construction workers, police officers, and volunteers swarmed the city, tearing it down bit by bit; my grandfather was one of them, unfortunately, I couldn’t ask him about his experience of being in the city as he passed away before I had the chance to. The Hong Kong government finished demolishing the Kowloon Walled City in April of 1994. The government took $2.7 billion (USD 350 million) and distributed it to each of the 50,000-60,000 individuals which meant that each person only got around 50,000 HKD (6,400 USD), which is

Kowloon Walled City Park (1995-today): After the demolition of Kowloon Walled City, they built a park in its honor with the historic yamen still standing in the center, with a canon from the original military fort. It finished construction in 1995 and it was opened to the public.

Architecture and Before Demolition

The city was massive, having over 300 buildings, but instead of one road connecting things, there were thousands of shortcuts. It would be impossible to map the whole thing using modern methods. It had a large gap in the middle, which was where the historic yamen stood, it was a popular attraction among the people who lived there.

Each path in the city was around 1.5 meters wide (5 feet), with dangling wires and a dim electrical circuit, lighting these alleyways. The cables stretched and stretched like water throughout the city, appearing and twisting in every direction and popping out in unexpected ways. Outside the city, you could see dental shops, run by doctors from the mainland who couldn’t afford a dental license in Hong Kong, so they ran their businesses there. In the city, there were hundreds, if not thousands of different stairways.

The city had hundreds of alleyways that all merged with the city. The city’s rooftops and outer edges exposed to sunlight, were dominated by solar panels and antennas in which all the residences shared signal and electricity, an entirely fair utopian society; so if you did something terrible, the gangs would hunt you down and beat you ruthlessly.

Next to the city, the neighboring Sai Tau Tsuen village stood, it was a squatter village, home to thousands of people. It was a massive squatter village with hundreds of people living in it. It further boosted the population of the Walled City, after its deconstruction in 1985, in which the thousands of squatters moved into the city.

Movies and Films

There have been many films made, referencing the cultural memory of the Walled City, the most watched and popular one being the movie, Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In, which instantly became one of the highest-grossing films of all time in Hong Kong, gaining $105 million Hong Kong Dollars by July 2024. It also broke the record for the most-viewed local film with an insane 1.6 million viewers. It grossed over $112 million worldwide, from $13 million from Hong Kong, $94 million from mainland China, $1.9 million from Vietnam, $470 thousand from Australia, and others worldwide. The story is set in the mid-1980s when a Chinese refugee, working for a gang by a man named Mr. Big, gets scammed in which he is given a fake Hong Kong passport, then he steals drugs and hides out in the city. There, he meets a man named Cyclone, a gang leader and co-owner of the city. He then has to venture into the city, make money, and prevent the city’s demolition.

Another one is: The Long Arm of the Law, which was produced to the public in 1984, in which it talks about criminals illegally entering Hong Kong and committing crimes until they take refuge in the city before they are gunned down by policemen.

Conclusion

In all and order, the Kowloon Walled City was a chaotic slum on the outside, but as you dig deeper into the 4 walls, you can find order, you can find peace, you can find a home. So the Walled City wasn’t just a place of refuge, it was a living organism, it was a place where even though there were no rules, peace and order were still miraculously established. How can a place with absolute freedom and no rules be more in order than our current world? Even with endless freedom, people will still maintain order, one way or another.