In 1847, the massive wall of the Kowloon Walled City was completed. It became an important military outpost and a garrison-city for the Qing Dynasty to monitor the “enemy” — the British Empire, who has taken over the Hong Kong Island as a crown colony. It also served as an administrative hub for the Qing government to exert its sovereignty over the surrounding areas.
Inside the Kowloon Walled City
The above picture was taken at around 1910, about 60 years after it was built.
Look at how close it is to the water, the Kowloon Bay, at the top of the picture. On the opposite side of the water is the Hong Kong Island, the one ceded to United Kingdom as a crown colony. With the enemy so close, it is easy to understand why the Kowloon Walled City has such a strategic military value.
The original Kowloon Walled City measured 15 feet wide, 13 feet high, and a gross length of 2,200 feet. It was roughly a parallelogram, about 700 ft x 400 ft, enclosing an area of about 6.5 acres. Besides this massive wall, there was a “supplementary” wall which started from the North wall, ran along the hill side (白鶴山, “white crane hill”), to the top of the hill in a way similar to the Great Wall of China.
Now, with the fortified wall in place, government office buildings were established. Inside the “walled” city we found a building dedicated to the Commodore of the Dapeng Brigade (大鵬協副將). The Dapeng Brigade was originally stationed in the Da Peng City (大鵬城) in Da Peng Bay (大鵬灣) in the Canton Province. During the Opium War in 1839, it was relocated down south to Kowloon. The Commodore reported directly to the naval army in the Canton Province.
The second building belonged to the Assistant Magistrate of Kowloon (九龍巡檢師). This is a 3-Hall structure. The middle hall was used as the office of the Magistrate, commonly referred to as the “Yamen (衙門).” The hall on the back was his residence. The Yamen is the only structure left today.
Besides these government offices, there were also living quarters for soldiers. For obvious reasons, gun powder and magazine storage were located outside of these buildings. The origin of the Kowloon Walled City was hence more a military base rather than a civilian village that we know of in recent times.
In 1847, when the Walled City was first completed, there were about 250 soldiers living inside the wall, together with a small number of civilians, mostly dependents of the military people. The number of soldiers grew to to over 500 in 1898/99, when the Convention of Extension of Hong Kong Territory was signed.
A City without a Government
As I mentioned in Part I of this series, in 1898, the Qing Government signed the Convention of Extension of Hong Kong Territory. Under this treaty, United Kingdom leased the land and islands south of the ShenZhen river for 99 years rent-free. However, the Kowloon Walled City was excluded from this treaty. The Qing Dynasty still wanted some kind of military presence here.
In the following year, 1899, the then colonial governor Sir Henry Blake invaded the Walled City, only to find out that all the soldiers were gone.
From this point on, the Kowloon Walled City became a land with ambiguous sovereignty, a city without a government.
So, did the colonial assume control over the Kowloon Walled city then?
With the Qing officials gone, it would be logical to assume that the colonial government would then take over the governance and jurisdiction. However, this was not the case at all. Though the Colonial government did display such intention from time to time, nothing significant was being done. In fact, they dare not do anything inside the Kowloon Walled City. Even when they did, there was strong backlash both from the local resident and the Qing government.
The exception was perhaps in 1933 when the colonial government decided to tear down the decaying buildings and to relocate the residents. This was the only time in the history of the Kowloon Walled City that the colonial government succeeded in evacuating the residents and tear down the buildings. Three more subsequent attempts were met with strong resistance. Residence from the Kowloon Walled City would file complaints to the Qing government across the border, forcing the colonial government to give up their plans.
The Kowloon “Street”
Despite the political changes, life went on as usual.The civilian life seems to be quite unaffected by what was going on.
The surroundings of the Kowloon Walled City used to be mostly farmlands. There were villages scattered around the area. When the Kowloon Walled City grew in its population and importance, the surrounding area became a base to provide necessary supplies for the residents inside the Walled City.
Back in the time when the Qing officials were still in the Walled City, there was already a road connecting the South Gate to the waterfront of the Kowloon Bay. A bridge of about 200m was built between 1873-1875 to serve as a landing point for the visiting Qing officials. In normal days, it was used by the general public. This was the original Lung Tsun Bridge (龍津石橋). Later in 1910, this bridge was replaced by a stone structure.
What was interesting was not much the Bridge, but the area between the South Gate and the Bridge.
As the population grew bigger and bigger, more and more people would gather around this area to sell their products and produces. Gradually, a bazzar was developed. As the bazzar grew, it gradually became a community in itself. As the community grew, homes and shops were built. This was the famous “Kowloon Street.”
As you can see, the Kowloon Street was more than simply a “street.” It was a thriving community with a lot of business going on. In the early 19th Century, the Kowloon Street gathered people from all sorts of trades. Skilled labor like tailors, carpenters, and even entertainers all came here to make a living or to make a name for themselves.
Besides the “normal” activities, however, Kowloon Street also attracted vices. As commercial activities and business flourished, gambling places and even opium houses were also established there.
Now, we need to understand that while the Kowloon Walled City was under the sovereignty of the Qing Dynasty, though mostly in name only, the Kowloon Street was well within the control of the colonial government. In the years leading to the 1930s, the colonial government exerted more control of the Kowloon Street. Eventually, as works of land reclamation increased, and the area was being redeveloped, the Kowloon Street gradually disappeared from the map.
Reference:
http://www.lcsd.gov.hk/tc/parks/kwcp/index.html#, accessed 20th August, 2015.
http://www.hkmemory.org/city_relics/text/index.php?p=home&catId=19, accessed 20th August, 2015
Julia Wilkinson, “A Chinese Magistrate’s Fort” in City of Darkness: Life in Kowloon Walled City. 60–71
http://www.lcsd.gov.hk/ce/Museum/Monument/en/monuments_63.php, accessed 22nd August, 2015.
http://online.norrayhk.com/ltsbwd/M02A_background.asp?lang=2, accessed 15th, October, 2016.
My Kowloon Walled City Story 