The densest living place in the world? Hong Kong Kowloon Walled City
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I am starting this hub just to introduce one of the most stunning cultural heritages (For me at least) in my city to people who don’t know it yet. It is the place called “Kowloon Walled City” (九龍城寨)
The Kowloon Walled City was an unusual ungoverned residential area located in the city of Hong Kong. The area was not controlled by any of the building regulations, and as a results, buildings are simply “piled” up together. The buildings within are of no structural, lighting and ventilation control, let alone stuff like lift system or any security control. People could simply walk into the buildings and gain access to the roof top. Provided that you could figure out the path in this maze!
How dense is it?
For people who has not visited Hong Kong before, they may not know that Hong Kong is one of the densest city in the world. Here is a list of the top 10 cities with highest population in the world.
1. Macau (China) 18,534.25/km2
2. Monaco 16,923.08/km2
3. Singapore 7,022.81/km2
4. Hong Kong (China) 6,348.64/km2
5. Gibraltar (UK) 4,558.82/km2
6. Vatican City 1,877.27/km2
7. Malta 1,308.95/km2
8. Bermuda (UK) 1,226.42/km2
9. Bangladesh 1,126.55/km2
10.Bahrain 1,098.611/km2
Hong Kong itsn’t on the top of the list, but Kowloon Walled City in Hong Kong would easily be the densest area in terms of people per area calculation. Dated back the 1890s the there were 33,000 residents living in there and the area of the Walled City was approximately 6.5-acre, which equals to 0.03 km2. That means the population density is approximately 1,100,000/km2!
You should not miss this video from the movie "Bloodsport"
History of the Walled City
The Kowloon Wall City was an enclave since the New Territories were least to Britain in 1898. The Walled City evolved into a highly dense and ungoverned urban settlement after the invasion of Japanese during the World War II. This place gradually developed into a place for gambling, drug trading, prostitution.
Where is it now?
In order to eliminate the abuse of drugs and those illegal gambling and prostitution activities within the Walled City, Hong Kong Government started their plan to demolish it in Janaury 1987. After an arduous eviction process, the demolition process was delayed to 1993. The whole demolition work and removal of construction material took more than a year for completion, and the original Walled City location was turned into a urban park in December 1995. Many of the artifacts within the location were preserved and exhibit to the public.
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It is the social center within the Walled City community, and it is called Yaman. A place for residents to talk, to have tea and for watching television. It's like a courtyard of a house but well.. I doubt if they are getting any natural lighting or ventilation with that kind of density.
Wow - what pictures. I never belived that this is possible. I am really wondering that these cabling will not result in a lot of fires.
Just so no one else follows the same thought process as Martina and Wildiris, this was demolished in 1993.
WildIris 2 years ago
what an interesting Hub. I've never heard of Kowloon City before. I though Mexico City was the the most densely populated place in the world. The photographs are very informative. What is the structure in the center of the city?