Posted on 09/07/2014 5:29:34 AM PDT by beaversmom
Once thought to be the most densely populated place on Earth, with 50,000 people crammed into only a few blocks, these fascinating pictures give a rare insight into the lives of those who lived Kowloon Walled City.
Taken by Canadian photographer Greg Girard in collaboration with Ian Lamboth the pair spent five years familiarising themselves with the notorious Chinese city before it was demolished in 1992.
The city was a phenomenon with 33,000 families and businesses living in more than 300 interconnected high-rise buildings, all constructed without contributions from a single architect.
Ungoverned by Health and Safety regulations, alleyways dripped and the maze of dark corridors covered one square block near the end of the runway at Kai Tak Airprot.
'I spent five years photographing and becoming familiar with the Walled City, its residents, and how it was organised. So seemingly compromised and anarchic on its surface, it actually worked and to a large extent, worked well,' said Mr Girard on his website.
Dating back to the Song Dynasty it served as a watch post for the military to defend the area against pirates and to manage the production of Salt before eventually coming under British rule.
However, during the Japanese occupation on Hong Kong in the Second World War parts of it were demolished to provide building materials for the nearby airport.
Once Japan surrendered from the city, the population dramatically increased with numerous squatters moving in. Eventually it became a haven for criminals and drug users and was run by the Chinese Triads until 1974.
By the early 1980s it was notorious for brothels, casinos, cocaine parlours and opium dens. It was also famous for food courts which would serve up dog meat and had a number of unscrupulous dentists who could escape prosecution if anything went wrong...
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Amazing photos.
Thanks for sharing.
Thanks a ton - fascinating. Since it is FR I can’t resist - a complete economic ecosystem with falling crime and residents wishing to stay - all with no official “governmentness”. Imagine, people figuring things out themselves without politicians pretending to know what they are doing. And the end, where the govt places no value on the windowless apartments and the owners saying screw that, we’ll stay, thank you.
There is a chinese restaurant north of Boston called the "Kowloon" and it can be quite crowded on a Friday or Saturday night. I always liked to go there as you could order scorpion bowls and fog cutters in the bar area while waiting for a table to become available.
cowloon? named for hillary clinton before here time??
Fascinating. Thanks.
You’re welcome. :)
You’re welcome and nice take.
Good thing this wasn’t on Guam, or the island would have tipped over.
Reminds me of the 20 story budget hotel I stayed in when I was in Kawloon in 1983 called the Chungking Mansions. Some of the rooms were as small as 8 ft long by 4 ft wide. The elevators were always packed and often overloaded so that the alarm went off and the last ones on had to get off so it would work. But the price was right in expensive Hong Kong.
I was going to say thanks for posting that but it seems so many already have. :) It makes me feel so grateful I was not born in a place like that. I imagine they were born and died in that hell hole and never knew any better. Terrible existence.
Incredible.
Haha I stayed there.
Class place that is (was?)
Looks like stacked shipping containers.
Looks like the movie “Blade Runner”
according to the article no architects were employed in the “process”..
Lol...I just told a FRiend it would have been a great place to film Blade Runner.
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