Update 30 - Kowloon Walled City

Kowloon Walled City site was used by imperial officials in the 15th century and was first fortified in 1668 when a signal station was established there. Around 1810, a small fort was built at the head of the beach, which then adjoined the site. The importance of the area to China's maritime defences grew sharply following the British occupation of Hong Kong Island in 1841. Between 1843 and 1847 a walled garrison-city was constructed. Massive stone walls with six watchtowers and four gates enclosed the area.

 Walled fort around 1910

The Walled City was densely populated and a largely ungoverned settlement in Kowloon. In 1898, the New Territories were leased to the British for a term of 99 years. At first, Qing officials still continued to station in the Walled City. In 1899, however, British troops were sent to take over the City, and the Qing officials and soldiers were expelled. The resultant vacuum of civil order from 1899 laid the seeds for the eventual deterioration of the area into a semi-lawless enclave and festering squatter slum.

Kowloon Walled Fort in 1915

During the Japanese occupation of 1941-45 the wall was torn down and the stone used to extend the nearby Kai Tak airfield, which later became Hong Kong's famous international airport.

In the 1950s, Triad groups such as the 14K and Sun Yee On gained a stranglehold on the Walled City's countless brothels, gambling parlours, opium dens and even cheap, unlicensed dentists. The Walled City had become a haven for criminals and violent crime; police would only venture into it in large groups. it wasn't until 1973-74, when a series of more than 3,500 police raids resulted in over 2,500 arrests and over 4,000 pounds of seized drugs, that the Triad's power began to wane. With public support, particularly from younger residents, the continued raids gradually eroded drug use and violent crime. In 1983, the police commander of the Kowloon City District declared the Walled City's crime rate to be under control. In 1987 the Walled City contained 33,000 residents (some sources quote 40,000) within its 6.5-acre area.

The Walled City in 1973 (without the wall of course..)

1973 street picture courtesy of HK Library

1970s aerial view of the city

By 1989 the city had expanded rapidly

1980 showing one of the few internal courtyards

1980

Buildings were typically 12-14 storeys - height restriction due to Kai Tak airport flight path

Narrow alleyways inside the city were damp and rat infested

Letter boxes along one of the streets

1989 West Side - daylight was rarely able to pierce the ground level, so the city's inhabitants lived in darkness or artificial lighting

A typical streets power supply was overhead, water came from wells

Internal courtyard

View over rooftops

In January 1987 the Hong Kong government announced plans to demolish it, and after a long and arduous eviction process, demolition began in March 1993. Demolition was completed in April 1994 and Kowloon Walled City Park was built in its place, opening on the 22nd December 1995 by the last British Governor of Hong Kong, the Rt Hon. Christopher Pattern.

The park is modelled on Jiangnan gardens of the early Qing Dynasty and is divided into eight landscapes features. The parks paths and pavilions are named after the streets and buildings of the Walled City.

Layout of The Walled City Park as it is today - open from 06:30 to 23:00 daily

Some info on the South Gate - click twice to enlarge

Remnants of the South Gate explained

Remnants of the South Gate

A bronze model of The City

The 'Borg Collective' could have been modeled on this real life underworld and ungoverned city

Side section diagram of the Walled City in great detail

Some info about the Kuixing pavilion and Guibi rock

The gardens are lush and superbly planned

Photo gallery

Pavilion

History of the Walled City

Jackie Pullinger is an amazing woman who at the age of 22 moved from the UK to Hong Kong in 1966. A Christian missionary, upon arrival she sort to convert the inhabitants (triads, drug addicts and prostitutes) of the Walled City to Christianity and get them to give up their ways. Dramatically she more than achieved her goals, converting around 500 people. She set up the St. Stephens Society which still runs today.

Jackie Pullinger

This garden and rock are dedicated to the work that Jackie did in the Walled City

In the Almshouse

 The history of the City is well depicted in the park

 With videos and interactive exhibitions

 If you're in HK, visit the park if you're as captivated by the history as I was..

 The City wasn't serviced by water, which had to be gained from wells, pumps & stand-pipes

 Location of the Walled City in Kowloon - the park is built on the exact site

 Click twice to view me

The city was below the flight path of Kai Tak

Rickshaw

Some of the past inhabitants of the Walled City still frequent the park

Better go now, Police are on their way!

I've plundered the internet and purloined some photo's for this blog, I hope the owners don't mind too much..

By far the best source of photo's and information is the brilliant book I purchased on the subject, 'City of Darkness - Life in Kowloon Walled City' by Greg Girard and Ian Lambot.

Additionally, I bought the DVD, 'The law of Love - The Story of Jackie Pullinger' and book called 'Chasing the Dragon' by Jackie Pullinger and Andrew Quicke.
Finally, if you search on YouTube for Kowloon Walled City you'll see some great videos, the four German one's being the best.

Update 29 - Postcard from Hong Kong

June was another busy month for me, visiting places of interest in Hong Kong and Stef working long hours incl. weekends and over bank holidays for JP Morgan. And yes, it does make me feel guilty.
To disarm the locals we’ve been trying to pickup some useful Cantonese words to throw into our conversations with them. They’re always received with mirth and giggling. Such as neih hou mah? (How are you?) to which a response maybe mh haih gei hou (not so good) or jou sahn (good morning) or mh goi saai (thank you very much) or do jeh (thank you) or if you’re in a negative mood mh sai la (no, thanks). Of course all this may be having the opposite effect as light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.

 Avenue of Stars in Tsim Sha Tsui

Hong Kong used to be protected by Bruce Lee, now it's Jackie Chan!

Looking across to Hong Kong from Kowloon

HSBC on Hong Kong Island

St. John's Cathedral at Garden Road in the financial district of HK

Built in 1849 it's the oldest Anglican Church in Southeast Asia

In one of the busiest parts of the city, the church gardens are peaceful..

LHS HSBC on Queens Road with The Lippo building in the centre at the rear

The Court of Final Appeal (former French Mission Building)

Statue Square facing the Legislative Council Building (former Supreme Court)

Statue Square LHS HSBC, RHS Princes Building

The Mandarin Oriental Hotel with IFC Two towering above

Bank of China from Statue Square

Trams run along Des Voeux Road in Central and I use them whenever I can

Western Market used to be on the waterfront when built in 1906 at the end of Des Voeux Road. Now it's at least 1/2 Km back

A typical Hong Kong shop

Herbal remedy's shop incl. ginseng, reindeer horns and swallows nests

 Wing Lok Street specialises in all of the above herbals

The Dragon boat racing forms part of the 2000 yr old Tuen Ng festival (in honour of the death of poet Qu Yuan, who drowned himself in the Mi Lo River during the 3rd century BC, in protest against a corrupt government) on 16th June. However, in Mui Wo we celebrated the boat racing on Sun 13th June when everyone could enjoy it.

 Umbrellas are used for both the sun & the rain in HK, hence people walking in the sea on a sunny day with their umbrella's up..

 Silvermine Bay, Mui Wo is where the action was that day!

 Very colourful - teams of 20 rowers, a drummer and a helmsman. Spec' for a Dragon boat: 11.6M long x 1M wide, made of teak wood.

 Both locals and gweilo's (white men or ghost men) make up the teams and apparently a few years back it was impossible for an all gweilo team to win..

 Wanchai Star Ferry Pier

 A Sampan taking it easy on one of the busiest waterways in the world..

Stonecutters Bridge - connecting Nam Wan Kok, Tsing Yi and Stonecutters Island was completed on 7^th April 2009, making this the second longest cable-stayed span in the world, and opened to traffic on 20 December 2009.

Tsim Sha Tsui - clock tower (which used to be the terminus for the Kowloon-Canton railway) and the HK Cultural Centre and Space museum

Hong Kong Convention Centre completed in 1997

The reclamation work continues in Central

Interior of the Convention Centre

I've not mentioned the World Cup until now, but having broken off working on this blog to watch Holland knock-out Brazil 2-1, in an excellent game, I guess I will mention it. We had a satellite dish installed especially to watch the games, having got up at 02:00 for the 1st couple of England games and driven with my brother to a bar 8km away to watch them. So yes, we spent money to see our team perform, as I suspect most of the planet has over the past few weeks. But for England from their 1st kick to their last kick in 4 games, we were massively disappointing. A top English professional footballer is paid around £70k a week for his club and gets maybe 2 or 3 opportunities in a life-time to represent his country at the highest level.. So why were we so shameful? You have to blame all the players and the coach to show such ineptitude, not in 1 or 2 games, but in all 4 - grrrrgghhh! Anyway, the teams that are left are quality. Another great game last night with Germany deservedly beating Argentina 4-0. As I told our German vet today, I'm predicting a Holland vs. Germany final. Germany has a young, skilful, energetic and tactically brilliant team - everything England were not.

Still off topic, I thought I'd just say isn't technology great these days! There I am in the bottom left corner of my PC (located in a little village in an island off Hong Kong) talking on a videophone to my Dad in the UK. To think that when I started work in IT, back in 1977, calculators had not long been invented, neither the mobile phone nor PC had been commercialised to Jo Public yet... OK that proves I'm getting old, I'll stop right there.

Isn't Apple brilliant?

I took an outing to Tai Wo and Tao Po Market to visit the Railway Museum

Sounds a bit geeky, but I didn't write down any train numbers...

Earlier on in this blog I mentioned the clock tower in TST terminus for Kowloon-Canton railway, this is what it looked like approx 100yrs ago

Great rolling stock...look I'm not a train geek, I always preferred motorbikes and cars

Cracking engine Gromit!

Seats in the old carriages were like the Star Ferry eg. the backs moved in both directions

No streamlined carriages in those days ;o)

I met some friends

Me on those great historic trains

The old ticket office

 

 I don't think they realised it was a museum

 

 Great local market

 

 ..and that was Tai Po Market - worth a visit!

 

 I also visited Lei Cheng UK Han Tomb Museum - click twice to enlarge

 

Detail of how the 2000 yr old tomb was discovered

..and the artefacts they unearthed

The format of the tomb

Da tomb!

I love these typical HK buildings, not sure if the inhabitants do?

And finally I took the MTR back to Central and caught the boat home to Mui Wo

There is always plenty to see and do in Hong Kong and being a big fan of the history and the architecture, I'm in heaven. I did have one other outing in June and it was something I'd been saving up for many years - Kowloon Walled City. Although the Walled City no longer exists, a park was built on the grounds after its demolition in 1993-94. I visited the park and spent the last 2 weeks researching its history, and the next blog will be devoted to both an amazing piece of history and a sci-fi architecture.