The Densest City on Earth

honestly, its a miracle that the whole thing didnt go up in flames at some point, you'd think a massive fire would have started from something be it a lantern or the heavy industry that happened in there.

Kowloon is forever the model for incredibly dense dystopian science fiction cities. Night Runner, Dredd, Cyberpunk - all of them you can see the inspiration from the insanity that was Kowloon.

Fun fact: after the Walled City was evacuated, the district served for one last film in 1993 Crime Story starring Jackie Chan. during an important action scene of the film they made many explosions in this district which marked the beginning of its destruction.

I flew into HK in the late 1980's and I was STUNNED how close the plane came to buildings adjacent to the flight path. I remember our plane was STILL in the air, close to landing, yet I could see the TV sets in the different apartments ih the buildings adjacent to the runway flight path. I could even sort of see what the residents were watching on their TV's as we came into land. THAT"S how tightly packed the whole area was.

I learned about Kowloon walled city from my math teacher in grade 7. We took the population of Kowloon, measured it against its area, came up with a density, and calculated that the entire global population which at the time was 6bn - if crammed into a density of Kowloon, would roughly take up the area of Rhode Island.

Great documentary. My father grew up in HK, but worked in Kowloon Walled City, delivering propane tanks and 50-lb rice bags up 10+ flights of stairs to its residents, for 20+ years

There was a belief among futurists that Kowloon would be the model of future cities, densly packed to the point that it almost becomes ungovernable outside of wealthy areas. This is because it was believed that when countries became more prosperous the birth rate would go up. This is why it served as an inspiration for cyberpunk futuristic settings. We now know that the opposite happened.

It would be awesome to have the residents tell their side of the story and how it was living there

The reason this video is so short is because he doesn't endlessly tease point after point. He simply says what, why, when, where and keeps it moving. And I appreciate that. Subbed.

Imagine a retro noir story-driven game set in a semi fictional, open world Kowloon walled city which you can enter almost every buildings and rooms. You play as one of a very few private investigators in Kowloon and you have to navigate the city overcramped spaces filled with mysteries and suspense, leading up to some multiple endings depending on your gameplay. So much potential.

As someone born in the 90s, I sometimes forget how much has changed in just my short lifespan. To me, the time frame of when it was torn down still feels like it’s only been about a decade ago. Can’t believe there’s a park with so many fully grown trees already

The way Neo explains and the speed he uses fits me really well. As someone whose first language is not English, I find it both educational and recreational watching these videos! Excellent graphics and modelling!

I am a Hongkonger and I have to say, this is the best documentary about the Kowloon Walled City so far. Even better than local TV channel's in some parts. One of my boss lived there when he was a child. What he told me was quite different than popular belief. Maybe he was lucky, or the City was still in early days. Contrary to impression, he said the neighborhood was peaceful and like to take care of each other.

its really hard to even fathom the fact that this city existed in real life and not in a dystopian science fiction movie

I find Kowloon Walled City so fascinating and it was really nice to find this video because it brought up what I've always really been interested in about it; community. It's so easy to treat this city as something chaotic and lawless, but there was community and families there and despite it being outside certain jurisdictions, it did as well as any other city because of the people who lived there.

Great video!!! I got a chance to go into the Wall city right before it was demolished. Two pastors from Canada visited Hong Kong, and a friend of mine asked me to show them around for a couple days. They wanted to see the Wall City because of Jackie Pullinger. But by that time, the Wall City was already empty, and fenced all around with large pieces of plywood. We walked around outside until we found a piece of the plywood somehow not installed or removed by others. So we went in and walked around. I was shocked by what I saw, truly like a maze, can't see the sky because all spaces were fully utilized for various kinds of structures and cages, electrical wires hanging everywhere,

I grew up in Hong Kong and this video explained the Kowloon Wall City better than most of the local documentaries

It's such a shame that not more photos exist of this place. Kowloon is so incredibly fascinating

Visiting kowloon in shenmue 2 introduced me to the concept. It was portrayed well as a place of darkness and of light. Many of the people in the tightly packed internal streets of the game were happily living their lives in peace while the main character sought out the dark underbelly of the city. Its always been in the back of my mind knowing that its based on a real place that used to exist. When i played the game as a kid i thought it was a totally seperate plsce, but knowing it was within hong kong (where the bulk of the game takes place) makes alot of sense

This Video is so well made, the attention to detail in both visualization and story telling. It’s crazy how such a complex system as Kowloon worked so well for so many years, without going up in flames or collapsing. I’ve only briefly hear of this city before from one of my relatives who used to live near it before it was demolished, but it always fascinated me. I loved this documentary, so huge thanks!