henke on 19/3/2014 at 21:36
I remember this place from the game Shenmue 2, but I didn't think it was actually a real thing. It just seemed too wild and weird. I only just now found out that, once upon a time, Kowloon Walled City was actually a real place.
Inline Image:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90297811/Kowloon.jpgA piece of no-man's land in Hong Kong, not owned nor goverened by either the British nor the Chinese, it started filling up with squatters after the second world war. Refugees, criminals, and people with no place else to go started settling down in this area the size of a few blocks, and with no more room to expand, they started building upwards. Before it was demolished in 1993, it was a labyrinth of damp leaky appartments and alleyways housing a population of 50 000. Much of it was under Triad control. It was a real shithole no doubt, but nonetheless there's something alluring about the place. It's like something out of Judge Dredd.
An article with some great photos here: (
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2139914/A-rare-insight-Kowloon-Walled-City.html)
Really cool German documentary (with English subs): (
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lby9P3ms11w&list=PLO2Ay0DwoyOnsZiRqFhQHh0KxdS1GugAP)
SubJeff on 19/3/2014 at 21:38
What year is this?
:p
It was mental for sure.
demagogue on 19/3/2014 at 22:01
Yeah I saw that same article & remember those photos.
Surreal place; perfect setting for a game or movie.
june gloom on 19/3/2014 at 22:01
It was featured in Call of Duty Black Ops too.
It's got a real cyberpunk feel to it, doesn't it? The sheer density of population, the hodgepodge, makeshift warren of construction, the high crime...
Nicker on 20/3/2014 at 02:11
It is very organic.
Until later in the industrial age, many of the world's great cites were not so different from this.
N'Al on 21/3/2014 at 08:38
Cheers, henke, that was great. Some slightly bizarre stuff in the documentary ("They all look like pirates!"), but pretty illuminating nonetheless.
I had heard about this place from various sources (incl. Gibson's Bridge Trilogy and, uh, Bloodsport), but never really clocked what the Walled City really was.
