There are a number of working-class neighbourhoods in Kowloon that might be somewhat evocative of the Walled City. Sham Shui Po, Yau Ma Tei and Kowloon City (which is the neighbourhood adjacent to the old Walled City) are your best bets. They all consist of old, narrow, somewhat decrepit buildings with a large mix of uses.

Some of my photos of the above neighbourhoods:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/christo.../tags/yaumatei
http://www.flickr.com/photos/christo...ags/shamshuipo
http://www.flickr.com/photos/christo...gs/kowlooncity

More Sham Shui Po, which probably is the poorest area of Hong Kong, settled by a huge amount of mainly mainland immigrants.
Although, redevelopment is happening here too of course.

By "kenlee";
http://images3.fotop.net/albums3/com.../Img_2112a.jpg

http://images3.fotop.net/albums3/com.../Img_2118a.jpg

http://images3.fotop.net/albums3/com.../Img_2133a.jpg

http://images3.fotop.net/albums3/com.../Img_2122a.jpg


A closer look, by Car L;
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y18...hui%20Po/5.jpg

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y18...hui%20Po/4.jpg

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y18...hui%20Po/3.jpg

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y18...hui%20Po/2.jpg

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y18...hui%20Po/1.jpg

I'm surprised there wasn't a major fire that took most of it out before it was even razed.

thanks, staff, for the great photos. Wholly Grittastic, batman!

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/18...1.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

Finally. I broke down and ordered this book. Just had to have it, especially since it is very difficult to find. I am looking forward to getting it soon from AMAZON.com.

I got the book yesterday! I rate it an 11 out of 10. It is truly a fantastic read, chock-full (350 pictures) of amazing exterior, interior shots of the Walled City of Kowloon and its inhabitants.

/\ Your recommendation just sold another one. I'm ordering it right now.

Let me know what you think about it. I am quite sure that you will love it. After composing much of this thread, I thought I knew a lot about the Walled City, but there was so much that I did not know. The pictures and the accompanying text are fascinating. Wish I was able to snag the hardcover edition, though.

I found a "street map" of ground floor of the walled city:

http://www.weldcity.com/old/b10c.jpg

There are no existing copies (to the best of my knowledge) of the 'street maps' of the other levels. Note that the average number of stories of the 'fabric' that was the walled city was between 10-14. One could traverse from one side of the structure to the other without going down to ground floor. It was also allegedly possible (albeit difficult without a guide) to circumnavigate the perimeter of the 'roof' of the structure.

http://www.oneinchpunch.net/wordpres...lled-city1.jpghttp://www.tofu-magazine.net/newVers...ages/KWC-2.jpg

Conference on walled city:
http://www.archicentre.hk/image/eng_...lk_07-1-13.jpg

You know, it finally occured to me what this looked like (as Molson posted it in the MIT lawsuit thread in Current Events)...Rows of compacted cars stacked on top of one another...and as grotesque as it is, I sincerely think it still looks more attractive than a Frank Gehry creation. At least it has pattern and texture!
http://artkhammarita.files.wordpress...led-city-2.jpg

This thread refuses to die...but that's fine with me :tup:

Hell, I'm not sure if we could start an entirely new thread devoted to super-dense, tall, old or otherwise anomalous developments across the globe...

Places like....


Shibam, Yemen

http://www.geocities.com/iren_knehtl/images/shibam.gif

Longyearbyen, Svalbard, The world's northernmost permanent town (Nearest city with over 1,000 people: Nordkapp, Norway, over 1000 miles away).

http://wmatem.eis.uva.es/~angbar/Sva...ngyearbyen.jpg

I love the idea. Merits two threads, one for extreme density neighborhoods and/or building clusters (Yemen pics are great); the other for anomalous urban developments (e.g., Longyearbyen).

I wouldn't like the Walled City thread to die. Hope that it lives forever.

An intrepid explorer visits the walled city of Kowloon:
http://www.hh.iij4u.or.jp/~asabe/hon...hkkyuuren.html

Hong Kong’s Dirty Little Secret: Clearing the Walled City of Kowloon
http://juh.sagepub.com
Seth Harter, Journal of Urban History 2000; 27; 92

Cross-sections of KWC. Sorry for the small size.

http://img505.imageshack.us/img505/4551/kwc1mr7.png

http://img214.imageshack.us/img214/1337/kc2tr3.png

^Amazing....wish they could be larger...I remember seeing these somewhere before. The mixture of shops/dwellings/factories/services and the honeycombed maze of passageways across the different levels is utterly fascinating.

Where did you find these, originally?

Flickr. Some guy said he scanned them from a magazine (wasn't mentioned which one).

Apparently, the Kowloon Walled City was the inspiration for the "Narrows" in the Batman Begins version of Gotham City. I saw a much better picture a long time ago, but this is the only one I can get right now.

http://www.dc-kingdom.com/images/features/fallout01.jpg