My last post was a look at Hong Kong’s last remaining walled village and the Thai community that has sprung up around it (here).
This post is about the same area – Kowloon City – and the remains of once (in)famous Kowloon Walled City that used to lurk there.
I already went into the history of Kowloon Walled City in my last post but suffice to say it became notorious as a den for triads and overcrowding but was eventually ripped down in 1994. What is there instead now is Kowloon Walled City Park.
What is most incredible is that this small park is where 33,000 residents once lived, crammed into space of under 0.03 square km. The park itself is apparently modelled on traditional Chinese gardens but with its landscaping still keeps a feeling of being distinctly different from the rest of Hong Kong.
We went there as part of Hong Kong’s Arts Festival last month for the Power Plant exhibition. Power Plant was – pretensiouly soundingly enough – descirbed as an “eerie sonic wonderland. . . where strange illuminations light up the night and . . . the garden is transformed by magical sounds and exotic art installations“.
The thing is, that description was pretty accurate. The use of audio and light based art installations worked perfectly in the park and made you feel as the vestiges of its iniquitious history were being dragged out of the ground for your display.
Whilst the Power Plant installation might be gone, the the Walled Park is still there and is well worth visiting.
PS the last post on Kowloon City is here
I remember reading something about Kowloon Walled City on web urbanist, and it sounds so evocatively awful. I saw a video someone shot before it was knocked down and it had the feel of Chungking Mansions times ten. Interestingly, if you have seen Bloodsport (bog standard J-C Van Damme movie) that was meant to be set there and some of it even filmed in the dense dark alleys.
It’s good to see some green space has come out of all that, even if a little bit of me is sad never to have got to visit it, because I do love me a bit of dense urban life.
PS – I found this: http://cyborganthropology.com/Kowloon_Walled_City and this: http://www.flickr.com/photos/caseorganic/4476575837/. Both give a flavour of what it must have felt like to be there.
God – I wish they hadn’t knocked it down. I bet it was heinous living there and every single person who was there is now probably happier and safer elsewhere but what a bit of history and vibrance. They could have left it is a HK Pompei?