Kowloon Walled City Park

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Renovated from Remnant

Kowloon Walled City Park located in Kowloon City, Hong Kong, the park is designed as a Chinese Jiangnan garden. In winter, red leaves are everywhere in the park. It is one of the rare places to shoot red leaves in Hong Kong. Formerly, it was known as Kowloon Walled City.

is a demolished settlement in present-day Kowloon City of Hong Kong, which used to be the most populated area in the world.

Lawless Zone

According to the “The Convention Between Great Britain and China Respecting an Extension of Hong Kong Territory”(Second Convention of Peking), from July 1, 1898, the United Kingdom would lease more than 200 outlying islands north of Kowloon Boundary Street, south of Shenzhen River and nearby areas for a period of 99 years. However, the British government did not rush to take over the New Territories until April 1899, when it started to release the lease agreement.

On April 14, the major punti clans (which was led by the Ping Shan Tang clan) started the Six-Day War of 1899, and the government officially took over the New Territories on April 19. As the anti-British activities of the villagers in the New Territories did not stop, the British believed it was the best time to ask the Military of the Qing dynasty to retreat from Kowloon Walled City.

After the war, the British government believed that the war was planned by the officials of Xin ‘an County. It violated the one of the rules in “Second Convention of Peking” that “it shall not interfere with the armed forces for the defense of Hong Kong”. Therefore, on May 16, the British government sent the Royal Welch Fusiliers and 100 soldiers from Hong Kong Artillery and Rifle Volunteer Corps to invade the walled city and drive out all the officials and officers in the city. Since then, the walled city has been abandoned for a time, almost uninhabited. Then, the walled city became ungoverned and so called the city of anarchy.

However, both the British and Chinese governments are finding the situation in the walled city increasingly intolerable. In December 1984, China and Britain signed the “Sino-British Joint Declaration” to deal with the Hong Kong issue. In 1987, the two countries jointly decided to tear down the walled city and relocate residents.

Swan Song

On January 14, 1987, the British government and the Chinese government reached an agreement to demolish the walled city and rebuild the park on the original site. During the rebuild project, staff and workers also tried to retain some of the original buildings and features of the village.

The park is divided into nine scenic spots, including “The Yamen”, “The Old South Gate”, “The Mountain View Pavilion”, “The Chess Garden”, “The Garden of Chinese Zodiac”, “Eight Floral Walks”, “Kuixing Pavilion and Guibi Rock” and “The Garden of Four Seasons”. On April 25, 2018, a new exhibition was added to the park, featuring an outdoor exhibition area “A City of Thousand Faces” and six exhibition halls inside the Yamen, showing the history and daily lives of the residents of the Walled City before demolition.

The fascination of Kowloon Walled City can still be seen in many Chinese and foreign films, such as the classic film “Long Arm of The Law”. In recent years, there are more famous films including “Kung Fu”. In foreign countries, there are also films like “Ghost in the Shell” whose scene design refers to the old buildings of Hong Kong and the structure of the walled city. There are also theme parks built based on the landscape of the walled city.