look around this park and it will look likeany other one you’ve seen. it has trees, water, and walking trails. but at one point, this was home to the mostdensely populated place in human history, the kowloon walled city. located in northern hong kong, the kowloonwalled city existed until 1994.
Kowloon Walled City Park , at its peak, it had a population density ofover 3 million people per square kilometer. it had no real government, police, or lawsfor most of the 20th century. so how did this happen? to understand, we need to look at history.
when the british won the opium war againstthe qing dynasty in china, it set off a chain of events that led to hongkong being a colony of great britain. this worried the qing government, which controlledchina at the time. after all, their power was weakening, bothin their own country and on the world stage. losing to britain was bad news. so as the british expanded hong kong, theqing worked out a deal where they would keep a small fort, just to keepan eye on the british. this was the kowloon walled city.
unfortunately, while the qing had their eyeson britain, they didn’t keep their eyes on their owncountry, and they were overthrown. the qing was no more, and they were replacedby the republic of china. so that meant the kowloon walled city belongedto the republic of china, right? well… maybe. this is where everything starts becoming cloudy. the british felt that they now owned kowloonwalled city because the original deal was with the qing. but the qing no longer existed.
would the deal pass over to the republic ofchina instead? the kowloon walled city became a piece ofland in limbo. it was technically owned by the chinese, butwhich chinese? and technically located in britain… butwas it? nobody was really sure who had legal control. as if that wasn’t enough, the republic ofchina started having problems too. as the chinese civil war started, all hellbroke loose for the kowloon walled city. the republic of china was driven to exile,and the people’s republic of china took over most of the country.
wars create refugees, and plenty of them fledto hong kong. the british didn’t want to deal with theproblem, and returning to china wasn’t an option. the refugees were people in limbo. so naturally, they settled in a place that was also in limbo: the kowloon walledcity. as more and more people moved in, more andmore structures were built. however, since no government seemed to ownthe land, nobody followed any legal regulations or buildingcodes. over 300 buildings were eventually constructed,many of them without
basic safety features like foundations. they were built so closely that many simplybusted holes through the walls to connect to neighboring structures. because many of them lacked proper foundations, some buildings only stood because they leanedagainst the next one over. it was so packed that every resident had anaverage of 40 square feet of living space. since there was no real government, the kowloonwalled city basically had no laws that could be enforced. the police wouldn’t usually go in, so itbecame a hub
for unlicensed medical facilities, drug dealers,triads, and prostitution rings. while this sounds like a total nightmare,the surprising thing is that the crime rate was not as high as you’d expect, comparedto the rest of hong kong. that’s because there was still a community,where people lived, worked, shopped, and went to school. they created basic protocols to deal withdangers such as fires, and lived in a state of unsanctioned cooperation. it was an experiment in anarchy, and it workedup to a point. as times changed, the british government madetwo major decisions.
first, they officially recognized the people’srepublic of china as the official government of china. secondly, they decided to return the entirecolony of hong kong to china in 1997. these two choices would eventually lead tothe end of the kowloon walled city. the kowloon walled city was no longer goingto be a legally ambiguous piece of land. no matter what, by 1997, it was going to becomepart of the people’s republic of china, alongwith the rest of hong kong. with this in mind, both britain and chinaagreed on one more thing – they wanted the kowloon walled city dismantledand demolished.
britain had long seen it as an eyesore, andchina didn’t want to deal with it themselves. so in over the span of a year, the hong konggovernment relocated and compensated the residents of the kowloonwalled city. it took another year to demolish all the structures. today, the site is home to the kowloon walledcity park. the only remains of its past are a few stonesigns of the fort that once stood there, a few historical structures that survivedall these years of turmoil, and a copper model and diagram of what wasonce the most densely populated place in recorded history.
if you found this video interesting, pleasehit the “like†button below and don’t forget to subscribe for more nerdfaqs. in the description is a link to our patreon,where you can help us make more videos just like these. thank you for watching, and we’ll see younext time for more nerdfaqs.
look around this park and it will look likeany other one you’ve seen. it has trees, water, and walking trails. but at one point, this was home to the mostdensely populated place in human history, the kowloon walled city. located in northern hong kong, the kowloonwalled city existed until 1994.
Kowloon Walled City Park , at its peak, it had a population density ofover 3 million people per square kilometer. it had no real government, police, or lawsfor most of the 20th century. so how did this happen? to understand, we need to look at history.
when the british won the opium war againstthe qing dynasty in china, it set off a chain of events that led to hongkong being a colony of great britain. this worried the qing government, which controlledchina at the time. after all, their power was weakening, bothin their own country and on the world stage. losing to britain was bad news. so as the british expanded hong kong, theqing worked out a deal where they would keep a small fort, just to keepan eye on the british. this was the kowloon walled city.
unfortunately, while the qing had their eyeson britain, they didn’t keep their eyes on their owncountry, and they were overthrown. the qing was no more, and they were replacedby the republic of china. so that meant the kowloon walled city belongedto the republic of china, right? well… maybe. this is where everything starts becoming cloudy. the british felt that they now owned kowloonwalled city because the original deal was with the qing. but the qing no longer existed.
would the deal pass over to the republic ofchina instead? the kowloon walled city became a piece ofland in limbo. it was technically owned by the chinese, butwhich chinese? and technically located in britain… butwas it? nobody was really sure who had legal control. as if that wasn’t enough, the republic ofchina started having problems too. as the chinese civil war started, all hellbroke loose for the kowloon walled city. the republic of china was driven to exile,and the people’s republic of china took over most of the country.
wars create refugees, and plenty of them fledto hong kong. the british didn’t want to deal with theproblem, and returning to china wasn’t an option. the refugees were people in limbo. so naturally, they settled in a place that was also in limbo: the kowloon walledcity. as more and more people moved in, more andmore structures were built. however, since no government seemed to ownthe land, nobody followed any legal regulations or buildingcodes. over 300 buildings were eventually constructed,many of them without
basic safety features like foundations. they were built so closely that many simplybusted holes through the walls to connect to neighboring structures. because many of them lacked proper foundations, some buildings only stood because they leanedagainst the next one over. it was so packed that every resident had anaverage of 40 square feet of living space. since there was no real government, the kowloonwalled city basically had no laws that could be enforced. the police wouldn’t usually go in, so itbecame a hub
for unlicensed medical facilities, drug dealers,triads, and prostitution rings. while this sounds like a total nightmare,the surprising thing is that the crime rate was not as high as you’d expect, comparedto the rest of hong kong. that’s because there was still a community,where people lived, worked, shopped, and went to school. they created basic protocols to deal withdangers such as fires, and lived in a state of unsanctioned cooperation. it was an experiment in anarchy, and it workedup to a point. as times changed, the british government madetwo major decisions.
first, they officially recognized the people’srepublic of china as the official government of china. secondly, they decided to return the entirecolony of hong kong to china in 1997. these two choices would eventually lead tothe end of the kowloon walled city. the kowloon walled city was no longer goingto be a legally ambiguous piece of land. no matter what, by 1997, it was going to becomepart of the people’s republic of china, alongwith the rest of hong kong. with this in mind, both britain and chinaagreed on one more thing – they wanted the kowloon walled city dismantledand demolished.
britain had long seen it as an eyesore, andchina didn’t want to deal with it themselves. so in over the span of a year, the hong konggovernment relocated and compensated the residents of the kowloonwalled city. it took another year to demolish all the structures. today, the site is home to the kowloon walledcity park. the only remains of its past are a few stonesigns of the fort that once stood there, a few historical structures that survivedall these years of turmoil, and a copper model and diagram of what wasonce the most densely populated place in recorded history.
if you found this video interesting, pleasehit the “like†button below and don’t forget to subscribe for more nerdfaqs. in the description is a link to our patreon,where you can help us make more videos just like these. thank you for watching, and we’ll see younext time for more nerdfaqs.