City of Darkness is a book about the now-demolished Kowloon Walled City in Hong Kong.
Kowloon Walled City was the most densely populated place on Earth before it was destroyed in 1993 and turned into a park. At its peak, the “city” had 50,000 inhabitants on 0.026 km² area of land (that, according to Wikipedia, is equal to about 1,900,000 people per square kilometer). By contrast, Manhattan (NYC) has a population density of 25,849/km². Yeah, so if you think Manhattan is crowded, then think of it with roughly twice the amount of people in the same area and that’s close to what Kowloon Walled City was like (although I bet it was a lot worse). Here’s another comparison chart of how densely populated KWC was.
Kowloon Walled City in 1973 – Population around 10,000
As bad as it was in terms of living conditions, looking at photos of Kowloon Walled City makes me wish it was still around so that I can go and visit it this coming summer [I'll be in Hong Kong in June 2008]. The place looked like it would be a great place to explore and rummage around especially with its make-shift architecture and numerous alleys and oddities (despite the unsanitary conditions and such). It reminds me a lot of comic book cities or something.
Unfortunately, the location was largely undocumented and it looks like the book above is one of the most complete and easy-to-access resources I could find on KWC. If anybody knows of any other place I can see photos and read information, please pass that info along to me!
There are great aerial photos of KWC at deputydog.
Anyway, I’d love to get a hold of City of Darkness and check it out and read up on the history of this place. Maybe when I’m in Hong Kong in June I’ll be able to visit the park that lies on Kowloon Walled City’s foundation. We’ll see. :)
Hi, my daughter is doing a project at school about densely populated areas. I thought this would be a good place to start! About 20 years ago, channel 4 in the UK (are you in the UK?) did a series called Network 7, and at one point visited the place. It was fantastic, like a cross between a biblical mega city and a post apocyliptic sci-fi out-post of humanity, crammed togeather, with DIY electrics and their own postal system ( characters painted on doors ). Everything you could want was their, hair dressers, shops and the elecricity supply tapped illegally from the local grid. The place did not officially exist and was not on any torist maps, just as vast swathes of Moscow wasnt when I visited in the mid 1980s. If this book is in English I will order it.
Being an anime fan and seeing countless movies and series’ set in locations such as this I too wish it were still around. While visiting it may not be the smartest idea due to some of the activity that went on there it is such a huge contrast to the wide open spaces of my home town that is easily 400-500 times the size of Kowloon but has a population three times it’s size when it was at it’s largest.
I have been scouring website, doing image searches…you name it. I am fascinated by this city that sprang up and became a self sufficient community free from goverment interference.
hi there, i randomly find your blog thru google searching kwc… well, i’m actually a student from h.k. now studying in canada, i’m also very interested in kwc like you ;) supposingly i should know a bit more than you do, but due to my young age i actually don’t know much about it… however, i did go to the kowloon walled city park last summer when i went back to h.k….. i expected to see a lot of pics and left over from the “extremely crowded period” of kwc, but disappointingly, they only display stuffs that are left from the very beginning, the anicent time….
such a pity that i’m staying in canada for the upcoming summer, or else i’d love to show you around in h.k. if you need a guide) :(
Greetings adventurers!
I visited the KWC while in the U.S. Navy in 1964. Of course I did it on my own and in civilian clothing. A white Navy uniform would have caused quite a stir and probably a lot more than that. Being a westerner from Connecticut still raised plenty of eyebrows but I came to no harm since I moved with purpose and direction: my goal was to make into the inner courtyard, then through the staitways up on to the roof tops. Oh the things I saw along the way! Humanity stacked on top of each other with mere inches of space in which to move, eat, sleep, play, make love, reproduce, and finally die. Literally thousands of the inhabitants never left their city. Countless numbers more never touched the ground. They spent their entire existence in the area where they were born. Needless to say sanitation was a major issue and the entire city was a closed ecosystem. The only way to stay relatively healthy was to have been born there. That insured you with an immune system adapted to the bacteria, germs, and viruses surrounding you.
I didn’t know what to expect when I finally reached to roof tops other than a great view of the surrounding area. What I fornd was makeshift camp after camp of another several hundred people living under cardboard and paper tents, going to the bathroom in open containers which they emptied over the sides onto the teaming masses below. Thousands of old women and children made up the bulk of the population. The young men and adult males who were able left the city to work below or in Hong Kong.
Visiting the city was quite an experience for a 20 year old sailor from the states. I continued serving my country aboard the aircraft carrier USS Oriskany until she caught fire in the Gulf of Tonkin on November 16, 1966. It was then and there I lost all of those photographs along with may hundreds more as well as the camera that took them. But no matter what happens to my material things, I still have vivid memories of all the places I have visited and of all the wonderful things I have done. Visiting the walled city was one of the reasons I decided to go to college and major in sociology and anthropology. After achieving those degrees and working for a while in Europe, I realized that the best use for my experience and education was to share my treasures with others. That is why I have spent the past year as a librarian. I can’t think of a better way to earn a living!
Best wishes to all of you who are expanding your horizons in your quest for knowledge!
I was there for about 5 hours and took 350 35mm color photographs.
Can you post these pictures somewhere so that we can see them? I imagine they would have to be scanned in on a scanner… probably pretty time consuming. Your images would certainly be exciting to look through.
Or maybe just a few of the best ones??
J
I read your post on kowloon city you mentioned being a librarian, Ijust read a poem about Kowloon city that sems to have been partly plagiarized. could you comment if you have heard this before;poem to follow:
kowloon city
bricks of stone hewn
by the hands of free women and men
I worked in the Walled City between 1979 and 1985 and at the time did not quite appreciate what a privilege it was. My husband and I were working with the Salvation Army, he with Refugees, and I worked along with the Local Kiwanis Club to maintain a kindergarten for 110 children. We had to raise funds through sponsorship, and part of my job was to take private tours into the kindergarten. We never had to request money, after they saw what a hell-hole it was the cheque books came out willingly.
In around 1995 my husband felt that for Hong Kong to have such a blight in such an amazingly sophisticated city was not acceptable, so he made a documentary with a film crew from Gateway films in London, and premiered it in the Sheraton Hotel Ball room, inviting members of the Government, journalists and philanthropists alike. They were totally amazed, some of the journalists were not even aware of its existence, and it piqued the interest of one particular TV journalist (name forgotten).
She asked the question, “Who owns the Walled City?” and it was shown in 3 minute segments over a week after the news.
At this time the talks between China, England and Hong Kong were setting the hand over in motion, and the subject of the Walled City was discussed as a priority, and we received a call from the Legistlative Counciller (again, forgotten his name) to tell us that it had been decided to resettle all inhabitants and make it into a park for the people.
I have many memories and stories about this place, and thank God that I had the privilege to work there and to bring some light into some very dark places.
A woman named Jackie Pullinger lived and worked in the Walled City for many years and now tours the world talking about her experiences there. She has written at least one book called “Chasing the Dragon” and it is well worth the read.
Hello Jenifer Darlow,
I would love to see the documentary your husband made. do you still have it and is possible that i can /view/have a copy. I am willing to pay for it!
thank you in advance,
best regards Kees Kruithof
Hello,
I find it fascinating to read that you worked there – I became interested in KWC after reading Jackie Pullinger’s book “Chasing the Dragon” and have remained interested ever since. The book “City of Darkness – life in Kowloon Walled City” from Watermark publications is also very good – well worth a read. I am currently trying to get hold of a documentary released in 1997 by Flying Dragon Productions in Hong Kong entitled “In search of the Dragon’s Tale”. Is the one that you & your husband made with Gateway films available & has it been televised at all?
Yiurs Sincerely,
Antony Ford.
I must admit that my interest for Kowloon came when playing a fantastic videogame named Shenmue II but what i expected was overrided when I decided to investigate more of this unique and rare “city”. Truly was an amazing discovery for me.
it is really amazing what was going on in this city.
i became interested in it by meeting Jackie Pullinger, who did an amazing job there, i am reading her book “chasing the dragon” at the moment, and recommend everybody who is interested in how life in the walled city was to read that book! God bless
check out this thread. Most of what can be found on the web on Kowloon Walled City is posted here,
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=55357
I, too found out about the walled city through Shenmue ii! I so wanted to duplicate Ryo’s travels. that I visited Hong Kong and Guilin while a colledhe student in Beijing. I was very sad to learn that the city was no more. While fetid and poor, it also look like a rather facenating place
Hello.
I’m fascinated by this immense anarchical maze that was Kownlon. I would love to go there, if it was not demolished 20 years ago:-(
I’m going to read this book you recomended, and the book “chasing the dragon”.
If you haven’t seen it yet, here’s a brief documentary of Kownlon, in 1979. Hope you all enjoy:)
Cheers.
Sandro
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5hk5oxj5uM&feature=channel_page
I visited the Walled City in 1988 and I visited the Walled City park last year (2009). I was prompted to go there after reading Chasing the Dragon. Unfortunately, I was unable to take photographs inside the city but you can read an account (with pictures) of my visit to both the city and the park which has replaced it on my website. Cheers, Keith
Hello Keith,
What’s your website address? I’d be interested to have a look as I’m planning to go to Hong Kong soon myself.
Cheers,
Tony