Kowloon Walled City

Kowloon Walled City 九龍寨城
Walled city
An aerial view of Kowloon Walled City in 1989
Kowloon Walled City
Coordinates: 22°19′56″N 114°11′25″E / 22.33222°N 114.19028°E / 22.33222; 114.19028
Country / City	China (de facto, 1898–1912; de jure, 1898–1993) British Hong Kong (de facto, 1912–1941 and 1945–1993) Japan (de facto, 1941–1945)
District	Kowloon City District
Area	Kowloon City
Settled	c. 1898
Demolished	1993–1994
Government
• Type	Ungoverned
Area
• Total	2.6 ha (6.4 acres)
Population  (1990)
• Total	35,000
• Density	1,300,000/km2 (3,500,000/sq mi)

Kowloon Walled City was an extremely densely populated and largely ungoverned enclave of China within the boundaries of Kowloon City, British Hong Kong.

Built as an Imperial Chinese military fort, the walled city became a de jure enclave after the New Territories were leased to the United Kingdom in 1898. Its population increased dramatically after the end of the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong during World War II, attracting mostly refugees fleeing the renewed Chinese Civil War.

By the late 1980s, the walled city contained roughly 35,000 residents^[1] within its territory of 2.6 hectares (6.4 acres; 26,000 m²). There was largely no governing of the city, therefore the city's citizens and businesses had no building codes to adhere to. Businesses that dealt in otherwise banned products, like dog meat, thrived. From the 1950s to the 1970s, it was controlled by local triads and had high rates of prostitution, gambling, and drug abuse.^[2]

In January 1987, the British colonial government announced plans to demolish the walled city. After an arduous eviction process, and the transfer of de jure sovereignty of the enclave from China to Britain, demolition began in March 1993 and was completed in April 1994.^[3]

Kowloon Walled City Park opened in December 1995 and occupies the area of the former walled city. Some historical artefacts from the walled city, including its yamen building and remnants of its southern gate, have been preserved there.