It's hard to imagine that this tranquil 1.2-hectare ornamental park, with its bamboo groves, pavilions and taichi practitioners, was until fairly recently one of the world’s most infamous residential estates. On a footprint of less than three hectares, the Kowloon Walled City was home to over 30,000 people, packed into teetering shanty towers connected by narrow passageways. Dubbed the "City of Darkness," it harbored gangs, brothels and opium dens, with its unregulated rise due to a mix of historical quirks and administrative challenges. Eventually, the British government relocated the residents, demolished the Walled City and replaced it with this park, which opened in 1995.
You can still see exhumed sections of the original south gate and remnants of a Chinese fort built here in 1847. A scale model of Kowloon Walled City, by the park's entrance, gives an indication of its staggering density, while a digital exhibition has interviews with former Walled City residents.
Confusingly, Kowloon Walled City Park is effectively inside the larger and more prosaic Carpenter Road Park, delineated, appropriately, by an encircling stone wall.
