Day 84: Kowloon Walled City Park

I woke up with intention to go to the library again (I was craving doing something other than be a tourist / give my poor legs a break), but accidentally (or was it subconsciously?) got on a train going the opposite direction. Instead of rectifying my mistake I decided to just roll with it and got off a few stops later at Prince Edward Station. 

I picked up pastries on my way out of the station and found a place that serves fruity drinks to sit at once I was at street level. Google Maps showed a park nearby and an adjacent flower market, so I began to walk in that direction. Fa Hui Park was pleasant, and the flower market was actually a block of stores that primarily sell flowers. Flowers are cheap here, you can get yourself a bouquet for 2 USD, or three blooming orchid plants for 10 USD. For a fleeting moment I considered buying one for myself, but realized I had nowhere to put it, not even back at the hostel. It would probably just end up on the floor of my dorm room after I had carried it around all day, and soon afterwards in the trash.

After browsing Wikitravel for things to see and do, I discovered that the location of the old Kowloon Walled City -- which I vaguely remembered reading about on the internet -- was in Hong Kong and near my current location. I took a bus to get there.

It has since been turned into a park -- so I was about 30 years too late to see the famed, ungoverned community in person -- but when they demolished the original structure they kept the almshouse and turned it into an exhibit.

You can get the basic contexual info from Wikipedia, but a few facts that piqued my interest from the exhibit:

• By the late 80s, the community had 33,000 residents spread over 26 hectares (0.026 km²), meaning they lived at a density of 1.3 million residents/km². If everyone in the world lived at that density, we could fit the world's population into the West Bank (not recommended). In comparison, the current most densely populated city in the world is Manila, Phillipines, with about 42,000 residents/km². The current most densely populated city district (you'll never guess this one) is Lalbagh Thana in Dhaka, Bangladesh with a density just over 168,000 residents/km². The most populated city district in the U.S. is Yorkville, NYC at 60,000 residents/km². Seattle has about 3,200 residents/km².  The interesting thing about Seattle is that its population increases by over 20% every weekday from all the commuters.

Region	residents/km2 (appx.)
Seattle	3,200
Manila	42,000
Yorkville	60,000
Lalbagh Thana	168,000
Kowloon Walled City	1,300,000

• The city was a haven for dentists that had credentials not recognized by the Hong Kong government (meaning they were not legally allowed to practice). One street was even dubbed "Dentist Street". According to those who had lived in the walled city and were interviewed for the exhibition, the dentists always did high quality work.
• While the city is known for its lawlessness and crime, very few of the residents were involved in crime, and most lived rather normal lives. In fact, small factories were abundant in the area because land was cheap and tax was not collected.
• The average apartment size was between 200 and 500 square feet. One unit usually housed a whole family, and larger units would house multiple families.

A map of the city from the 1980s

Apartment layouts and dimensions

From Kowloon Walled City Park I found a mall in Kowloon City to eat and rest at. From the mall I went back to the hostel for the night. I went out later with some new arrivals to the hostel -- a girl from northern India now living in Milan and a girl from near Oxford, as well as a previously met friend (a high school grad from Canada). We went to the Victoria Harbour viewpoint behind the space museum and had dinner at a late night restaurant on our way back.