Kowloon Walled City

Kowloon Walled Park

Kowloon City Streets

Growing up I remember reading about this mysterious place called the Kowloon Walled City--a lawless place in Hong Kong. Martin Booth in Gweilo, his memoir of growing up in Hong Kong, said it was "the most romantic and allegedly dangerous place in the colony."

It was about 25,000 square yards that remained (technically) part of China throughout British rule so the British turned a blind eye when it came to rule of law. Booth claims that no government taxes were collected there and that the power supply was illegally tapped from the main grid along with water from the main--it was a minute city state all on its own. When communist took over China in 1949, many criminal refugees fled to Hong Kong, some gravitating to the walled city area. "It was said that any European who entered it was never seen again unless floating out of it down the nullah that served as a sewer. If ever the police entered the area, they went in armed patrols of three." In other words--vice, prostitution, gambling, and as the Lonely Planet guide to Hong Kong says--worst of all were the illegal dentists. Ouch!

Kowloon Walled City was part of a larger, very traditional Chinese area of the city, Kowloon City. this is a densely packed area adjacent to the old airport. It has very traditional Cantonese food, merchants, and has always been known for smuggling.

In 1984 the HK government acquired the area, moved the residents and replaced it with a park.
This beautiful park is now located adjacent to the very traditional Kowloon City. I walked there today--still a vacation day for Chinese New Year. I have to say that this was one of the nicest walks I've had and the mixture of beautiful park and traditional Chinese streest was wonderful. Older people were walking in the park, doing their excercises, there is a bike path with bikes to rent (and traffic signs for the bikes), and beautiful gardens.