Some neat Walled City Statistics (
http://www.ehituskunst.ee/en/12/4142...immel_interv):
Area 2,9 hectares
Population density: 11 380 inhabitants per hectare
Population 33000
Buildings ca 350
Floors: mostly 10, the highest 16
Businesses 718 I.e. small enterprises, cafes, shops
Medical institutions 161 Doctors and dentists
In 1968 the estimated number of drug addicts in KWC is 5000 people.
Area: 2,9 ha
Year Number of inhabitants Growth m²/per person
1947 2 000 14,5
1971 10 004 400% 2,9
Late 1980s 33 000 230% 0,88
In 1990, the population density of KWC was seven times that of the most densely populated part of Kowloon city, Mong Kok, and almost thirty times that of the most densely populated area in the Western world, Manhattan.
1971 is a watershed in the history of KWC. That year the Hong Kong police participated in the handover of buildings in the possession of previous yamen to a Christian charity organisation. As always, Chinese offi cial protests were expected but on this occasion none were expressed. In 1984, as the end of the 99-year lease was approaching, China and the United Kingdom signed an agreement concerning the future of Hong Kong. In January 1987, a half - expected surprise occurred: the British and Chinese authorities issued a common declaration expressing their intentions to demolish the buildings of the Walled City. Simultaneously, offi cials were sent over to KWC to produce a census of all the inhabitants and any property which they would lose in the demolition process. It appeared as though both authorities were concerned only with safety and welfare.
The evacuation of the population was carried out without any major problems and the evacuees received quite reasonable compensations. The Walled City, already emptied of inhabitants, was offi cially closed in July 1992. The fi rst of three demolition stages began in April 1993.
The course of history was returned to its proper tracks. Of all the old buildings only the yamen was preserved; the area around the yamen was surrounded with a wall and became an archaeological park displaying only objects from aesthetically acceptable periods. The past 100 years in the history of the location and its very unusual community were erased from the memory of the place as if by a LOBOTOMY. The real story of KWC was REPULSIVE and had to be forgotten. It seemed that no one regretted the disappearance of the Walled City. The largest controlled explosive demolition was anticipated with some excitement. Still, this spectacle did not occur, as the complex was demolished by bulldozers in three stages. Crosssections of the complex were revealed for the fi rst and last time.
Vertical village
The existence of the multiplicity of traffi c routes, with their uncontrolled development, facilitated a more even distribution of social and business functions throughout the whole SECTION. A shop or a café need not be located on the ground floor. In the whole block there were just three lifts. Meanwhile, service facilities located at diff erent levels had distinct characters. The ground-floor shops and cafes served the general public, including visitors from outside the block. The service units of the higher floors often functioned as gathering places for locals. The boundary between a narrow street, often only 1-meter wide, and the surrounding business quarters was blurred. Most shops were separated from the street with metal grilles rather than a stonewall; during opening hours these grilles were lifted – thus a narrow street grew wider by integrating small shops and services into itself. These narrow passageways were still called avenues even though nothing of the kind had been seen in the Walled City for decades.
Life in the block took place under artificial lighting 24 hours a day, without a break, thus denying the biorhythms normally dictated by the cycle of day and night. Throughout the day, however, radical changes occurred in the use of the space: what used to be a café during the day became a mahjong den in the evening; corridors and stairways were not only transit routes but functioned also as an environment for play and for communication. This is why the sense of community which developed here was unusual in comparison with a typical high-rise. Often a place was turned into its opposite: a toy factory hiding a drug den; military fortifications become a tourist site; a refugee camp becomes the playground of criminal gangs; and the latter finally becomes a well-functioning community centre.
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