A rare look inside the Kowloon Walled City in 1990

It's amazing that this whole city was created without planning or building codes. It grew organically.

It looks horrible, and amazing at the same time.

Friends and I walked through this in 1992, after it had been condemned, and many people had moved out, but before tear-down had begun. Some people, mostly old men, were still living there. Definitely had a "Blade Runner" feel to it.

Amazing. It's like something out of a dystopian science-fiction novel.

You know this would be a tourist hotspot if it was still around

I imagine getting lost and residents giving me directions in the form of riddles.

If you can find it, buy a copy of the book: “City of Darkness: Life In Kowloon Walled City”. It’s an amazing detail of the walled city. It’s a very rare book nowadays, but it’s the holy grail on the subject.

The fact that these "tall" buildings stood up ...its an engineering marvel..

What surprises me is that Kawloon was never razed to the ground by a fire. The building code and electrical issues alone seem like it was designed to go up in flames sooner than later. Then how would you even try to fight a fire under those circumstances.

There's no other nightmare such as self taught dentist.

I was just thinking, "lawlessness" and violent crime are NOT the same thing. From what I've seen and heard about the place, it was far less violent and scary than many large cities around the world (incl. the U.S.). In a strange way, the residents seemed to have a kind of respect for each other and their "home". While I absolutely would NOT have wanted to live there, I have to say I feel some respect for the people.

It was NOT a place the Royal Hong Kong Police feared to tread and it was policed. I know as I patrolled it in the 1970s.

In Brazil we call this a "favela". By growing up in the favela, under similar conditions to this video, I find the footage so familiar, it doesn't scare me at all, but it's also not the best place to live :(

"Self taught dentists" three words that should never be together

“Self-taught dentists” yikes lol

i dunno why but somehow the city emits nostalgia...

They need to make an open world videogame but the entire map is a Kowloon-inspired city. Would be a very unique aesthetic.

I believe the most toughest person that time was The postman

If you ever get a chance, read "City of Darkness" (Ian Lambert and Greg Girard). The walled city is indeed a weird chapter in Hong Kong history, but its reputation wasn't as bad as some people make it out to be. Hong Kong was a pretty cramped and nasty place for a long time and many people lived in squalor that was almost as bad as in the walled city. Towards the 80s, the colonial government invested heavily in infrastructure and housing and things got a lot better. The walled city remained an anomaly that was beyond the colonial government's jurisdiction, with time the gap between it and the rest of Hong Kong widened.

Visiting the site of the Walled City was the highlight of two years in the mainland. A former resident made extra effort to welcome my wife and I to her former home, even though her English wasn't the best and the city had been gone for 25 years. Her hospitality forever won me over to the people of HK, and is part of why it is my favorite city in the world.