WEBVTT - How the Kowloon Walled City Worked 0:00:01.480 --> 0:00:07.720 Welcome to Stuff you Should Know, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:11.160 --> 0:00:13.600 Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh, and there's 0:00:13.680 --> 0:00:16.000 Chuck and Jerry's here as well, and this is stuff 0:00:16.040 --> 0:00:19.440 you should know. So well, it's get started talking about 0:00:19.440 --> 0:00:21.479 some stuff that you should know. And I guess we 0:00:21.480 --> 0:00:26.640 should do our semi annual explanation Chuck that the title 0:00:26.680 --> 0:00:29.160 of our podcast is never intended to make you feel 0:00:29.160 --> 0:00:31.840 bad because you don't know something. It's not that we 0:00:31.880 --> 0:00:34.560 think you should know this already. We're saying we find 0:00:34.560 --> 0:00:37.280 this really interesting and we want to share it with you. 0:00:37.440 --> 0:00:39.800 Hence we want you to know about it. You should 0:00:39.880 --> 0:00:41.839 know about this because it's interesting and we want to 0:00:41.880 --> 0:00:44.120 tell you about it, not that you should already know 0:00:44.200 --> 0:00:44.640 about it. 0:00:45.040 --> 0:00:47.000 Yeah, that's the second one. We just did that listener 0:00:47.040 --> 0:00:48.000 to mail like two weeks ago. 0:00:48.360 --> 0:00:50.000 I think we should do it every week. I'm going 0:00:50.040 --> 0:00:52.239 to start every podcast with that from now on. 0:00:52.320 --> 0:00:55.280 Okay, that's a great way to retain listeners, I think 0:00:55.320 --> 0:00:55.800 for sure. 0:00:56.880 --> 0:00:58.960 Man, you should see the match I'm drinking right now. 0:00:59.000 --> 0:01:04.560 It's like mash mash brown green. It's disgusting. I don't 0:01:04.600 --> 0:01:06.240 know what's wrong with it, but I got a drink 0:01:06.240 --> 0:01:06.759 in any way. 0:01:06.920 --> 0:01:08.280 Oh is it not taste good either? 0:01:10.319 --> 0:01:11.920 Not really, it's pretty bitter. 0:01:12.440 --> 0:01:15.000 Maybe that much is turned bro, But does. 0:01:14.800 --> 0:01:17.360 It it was powder? Does maucha turn? Because if so, 0:01:17.400 --> 0:01:19.039 I'm drinking turn macha for sure. 0:01:19.120 --> 0:01:20.920 All right, well we'll do a short stuff can of 0:01:21.000 --> 0:01:26.760 powder turn. But no, we're not going to do that 0:01:26.760 --> 0:01:29.640 today because we're talking about the Kowloon Walled City in 0:01:29.760 --> 0:01:33.520 Hong Kong, which is the most well, at one time 0:01:33.920 --> 0:01:36.680 was the most densely populated place on planet Earth. 0:01:37.400 --> 0:01:38.959 And just to give you if you've. 0:01:38.800 --> 0:01:41.559 Ever been to New York City, if you've ever traveled 0:01:41.600 --> 0:01:44.240 to the East Village, yeah, one of my favorite villages. 0:01:44.360 --> 0:01:45.440 That's where I got engaged. 0:01:46.400 --> 0:01:50.440 Yeah, right there at the museum. Which museum, not the 0:01:50.480 --> 0:01:55.320 Waitty That is the most and it doesn't feel like 0:01:55.320 --> 0:01:56.800 it when you're there. But the East Village is the 0:01:56.840 --> 0:02:00.600 most densely neighborhood in New York City and they have 0:02:00.640 --> 0:02:04.120 about forty three thousand people living in the East Village. 0:02:05.920 --> 0:02:08.600 The Kowloon Walled City is about the size of the 0:02:08.639 --> 0:02:13.000 East Village geographically, but there are one point yeah, that's 0:02:13.000 --> 0:02:14.720 why they use the East Village and all the comps. 0:02:15.840 --> 0:02:19.480 One point two five million people living there as opposed 0:02:19.520 --> 0:02:20.680 to forty three thousand. 0:02:21.400 --> 0:02:24.799 Okay, yes, exactly, but there were really only thirty three 0:02:24.880 --> 0:02:27.399 thousand people. But if you spread it all out over 0:02:27.480 --> 0:02:30.760 a square kilometer, you would have that many people to 0:02:30.960 --> 0:02:31.919 equal that density. 0:02:32.040 --> 0:02:33.000 Right, That's right. 0:02:34.080 --> 0:02:36.320 So that's I wanted to make sure to take that 0:02:36.360 --> 0:02:39.120 and just screw it up. The reason I did this 0:02:39.160 --> 0:02:41.600 is because it's not the same size. Kowloon Walld City 0:02:41.680 --> 0:02:44.480 is like a fraction of the size of the square kilometer. 0:02:46.400 --> 0:02:50.320 Yeah, it's I think like a little over three football fields. 0:02:51.080 --> 0:02:54.399 I saw that. I also saw four. I also saw 0:02:54.520 --> 0:02:57.720 four rugby fields or large soccer pitches. So all of 0:02:57.720 --> 0:02:58.919 those put together. 0:02:58.880 --> 0:02:59.280 Uh huh. 0:02:59.280 --> 0:03:02.959 Imagine twenty three thousand people standing on there like they'd 0:03:03.000 --> 0:03:04.960 literally have to be standing on one an other shoulders. 0:03:04.960 --> 0:03:07.440 Who knows how many people deep it would be. And 0:03:07.520 --> 0:03:13.080 so this incredibly compact area of a few football fields 0:03:13.120 --> 0:03:17.680 or rugby or soccer pitches held buildings right up against 0:03:17.720 --> 0:03:20.359 each other that went all the way up to fourteen 0:03:20.400 --> 0:03:24.080 stories tall. And if you went into this place, you 0:03:24.120 --> 0:03:28.040 would be like, I, I this is like nowhere I've 0:03:28.040 --> 0:03:30.160 ever been in the world. And you would be right 0:03:30.280 --> 0:03:33.000 because there was nowhere in the world like the Kowloon 0:03:33.040 --> 0:03:36.880 Walled City from about nineteen seventy to nineteen ninety ish. 0:03:37.320 --> 0:03:40.040 Yeah, like, if you have a if you have a 0:03:40.080 --> 0:03:44.480 fairly smallish lot that your house is on, let's say, 0:03:44.960 --> 0:03:48.040 have a single family house and it's on like maybe 0:03:48.040 --> 0:03:48.800 a half an acre. 0:03:48.920 --> 0:03:50.840 If you're lucky, like you're doing pretty great, that's a 0:03:50.880 --> 0:03:51.480 great life. 0:03:51.640 --> 0:03:53.680 Yeah, this is a little more than six and a 0:03:53.720 --> 0:03:57.320 half acres and there were five hundred buildings packed in there. 0:03:58.280 --> 0:04:02.200 That nuts. Even with those mind blowing stats, it's like, 0:04:03.120 --> 0:04:06.080 go and look, there's a very famous photograph from i 0:04:06.080 --> 0:04:09.360 think a nineteen eighty nine or nineteen ninety National Geographic 0:04:09.520 --> 0:04:15.840 overhead that just gets it all across perfectly. You just 0:04:15.920 --> 0:04:17.960 look at it and you're like, that doesn't even look 0:04:18.000 --> 0:04:21.240 like a village or a city. It looks like a 0:04:21.320 --> 0:04:23.599 single thing. And a lot of people have made that 0:04:23.640 --> 0:04:27.760 point that these buildings were so close together, they were 0:04:27.760 --> 0:04:31.800 so interconnected, people just built haphazard bridges between one building 0:04:31.800 --> 0:04:33.880 and another so they didn't have to go down fourteen 0:04:33.920 --> 0:04:38.840 stories and then back up that it essentially created one 0:04:39.040 --> 0:04:42.440 single organism. That that's kind of how Kowloon Walled City 0:04:42.480 --> 0:04:46.880 came to be seen when it reached its fully developed peak. 0:04:47.640 --> 0:04:52.919 Yeah, it had to be the inspiration behind the Living 0:04:52.960 --> 0:04:56.560 Quarters and Ready Player One if you've ever seen that 0:04:56.640 --> 0:04:59.640 movie or read the book. When I saw pictures of 0:05:00.040 --> 0:05:01.800 kowloon Wald City for the first time, I was like, Oh, 0:05:01.839 --> 0:05:04.560 looks like Ready Player One, really, except it was real. 0:05:04.680 --> 0:05:07.280 This was an actual, real place. So we encourage you, 0:05:07.320 --> 0:05:08.839 at some point when it's safe to do so, to 0:05:08.839 --> 0:05:10.920 look it up because the pictures worth a thousand words 0:05:11.320 --> 0:05:13.240 and we spent probably a couple of thousand trying to 0:05:13.279 --> 0:05:13.760 describe it. 0:05:14.560 --> 0:05:20.440 The thing that really rings home, I guess to me, okay, 0:05:22.200 --> 0:05:24.800 comparing it to Blade Runner, like especially in Blade Runner 0:05:24.839 --> 0:05:28.720 when Harrison Ford is eating noodles and Edward James almost 0:05:28.760 --> 0:05:31.960 comes up to take them away, Uh huh, Like just 0:05:32.040 --> 0:05:35.960 that kind of look like the fluorescent light, everything's packed together, 0:05:36.040 --> 0:05:39.080 is people everywhere, Like that's what it looked like. 0:05:39.080 --> 0:05:39.159 Like. 0:05:39.200 --> 0:05:42.839 There's no way that the designers of Blade Runner did 0:05:42.880 --> 0:05:46.159 not were not inspired by kowloon Wald City. I refuse 0:05:46.320 --> 0:05:46.960 to believe it. 0:05:47.440 --> 0:05:49.360 Well, and as we'll see, or I guess I could 0:05:49.360 --> 0:05:51.479 say it now. There have been lots of video games 0:05:51.520 --> 0:05:55.920 and movies that were based either on or very much 0:05:55.960 --> 0:05:59.320 patterned after this look one of the black Ops games. 0:05:59.320 --> 0:06:02.640 This movie about a straight cat or sorry video game 0:06:02.640 --> 0:06:04.640 about a straight cat. That maybe a movie at some point, 0:06:04.720 --> 0:06:08.240 but yeah, I think it was. This is all to 0:06:08.279 --> 0:06:11.160 say it was densely packed. Have we gotten that across? 0:06:11.800 --> 0:06:14.040 What was that movie that I told you to watch 0:06:14.240 --> 0:06:16.919 about the cat? The animated movie about the cat, And 0:06:16.960 --> 0:06:20.600 then you said, oh, I already saw it in theaters. 0:06:20.680 --> 0:06:21.520 Was it called Flow? 0:06:22.279 --> 0:06:24.440 I think that was Flow. That was so so great. 0:06:24.960 --> 0:06:27.960 That was such a good movie. I encourage everybody to 0:06:27.960 --> 0:06:30.360 go watch it. It's like almost sixteen or eight bit 0:06:30.480 --> 0:06:33.160 graphic looking. It's very bit mapped on purpose, and it 0:06:33.200 --> 0:06:35.520 really does a great job of making it otherworldly. 0:06:35.760 --> 0:06:37.440 Yeah, it won the Oscar and it looks that way 0:06:37.480 --> 0:06:39.600 because a dude made it in his apartment. 0:06:39.839 --> 0:06:42.080 Oh man, that makes it even better. That is such 0:06:42.120 --> 0:06:43.120 an amazing movie. 0:06:43.320 --> 0:06:44.120 Yeah, it's really great. 0:06:44.360 --> 0:06:46.200 The other movie that sticks out for me when I 0:06:46.200 --> 0:06:49.680 think of Kowloon Walld City is the merchant Ivory movie Howard's. 0:06:49.400 --> 0:06:54.280 End Right or Far and Away with Nicole Kidman right 0:06:54.720 --> 0:06:55.279 Tom Cruse. 0:06:55.320 --> 0:06:57.520 That one I saw that in the theater for some reason, 0:06:58.040 --> 0:07:00.719 really that's weird. I also saw eyes I'd shut in 0:07:00.800 --> 0:07:03.640 the theater and I knew all about it going into it, 0:07:03.760 --> 0:07:05.599 and so it was my birthday, so I made my 0:07:05.640 --> 0:07:06.960 whole family go watch it. 0:07:07.360 --> 0:07:10.400 Uh that's that very fun end of that story. Yeah, 0:07:10.600 --> 0:07:10.960 all right. 0:07:11.000 --> 0:07:12.520 So we need to go back in history, though, if 0:07:12.520 --> 0:07:14.240 we want to talk about how this city came to be, 0:07:14.960 --> 0:07:16.720 and in order to do that, we need to go 0:07:16.760 --> 0:07:19.880 back to the First Opium War, which was a few 0:07:19.960 --> 0:07:23.280 years between eighteen thirty nine and forty two where there 0:07:23.320 --> 0:07:27.280 was a trade dispute between Imperial China and Britain, where 0:07:27.280 --> 0:07:30.160 in Britain was like, hey, we loves shipping in this 0:07:31.080 --> 0:07:35.720 opium from India to your addicted citizens, and China was like, no, 0:07:35.920 --> 0:07:38.520 we like selling them opium ourselves, and. 0:07:38.560 --> 0:07:39.920 So let's go to war over that. 0:07:40.520 --> 0:07:44.000 I think actually China was executing addicts in the street. 0:07:44.080 --> 0:07:47.000 They were on a huge campaign to eradicate opium addiction 0:07:47.080 --> 0:07:50.080 from their population, and Britain was like, uh, uh, we're 0:07:50.120 --> 0:07:52.200 going to keep them addicted because we're making tons of 0:07:52.240 --> 0:07:54.040 cash off of that, oh for sure. 0:07:54.120 --> 0:07:56.760 And this is after China had made a ton of 0:07:56.760 --> 0:08:00.960 money shipping tea, so there were trade relations already, you know, 0:08:01.080 --> 0:08:02.240 sort of ensconced. 0:08:02.440 --> 0:08:05.000 Yeah, and Britain couldn't get enough of China's tea. But 0:08:05.120 --> 0:08:07.000 China was like, we don't really want too much of 0:08:07.040 --> 0:08:11.080 your stuff, except our population wants the opium you're smuggling in. 0:08:11.280 --> 0:08:14.960 So imagine if like the war as cartel, like Mexico 0:08:15.080 --> 0:08:17.880 is like, nope, we don't want you you supplying our 0:08:17.920 --> 0:08:21.640 population with drugs, and the Wars Cartel's like, oh yeah, 0:08:21.640 --> 0:08:23.280 we're going to war with you and we're gonna win. 0:08:23.360 --> 0:08:25.800 And now we have a treaty saying that we can 0:08:25.840 --> 0:08:29.000 sell your population drugs and you can't do anything about it. 0:08:29.200 --> 0:08:31.680 That was essentially the First Opium War. Yeah, and there 0:08:31.720 --> 0:08:34.400 was even a second Opium War, the sequel. 0:08:34.440 --> 0:08:34.920 That's right. 0:08:35.600 --> 0:08:39.000 But another important thing come out of the First Opium War, 0:08:39.160 --> 0:08:44.120 which was China was forced to seed some land on 0:08:44.440 --> 0:08:47.120 Hong Kong, which you know wasn't a big bustling place 0:08:47.160 --> 0:08:49.120 at that point, not much of anything at that point, 0:08:49.760 --> 0:08:53.319 And in order to sort of you know, be close 0:08:53.360 --> 0:08:54.800 to them and sort of keep an eye on what's 0:08:54.800 --> 0:08:58.280 going over there, the Qing dynasty said, all right, we 0:08:58.320 --> 0:09:02.880 have a military installation just across the water from Hong 0:09:03.000 --> 0:09:06.720 Kong on the Kowloon Peninsula and over the Kowloon Bay, 0:09:07.000 --> 0:09:10.640 and let's build a big wall there and just like 0:09:11.040 --> 0:09:14.880 fortify this little military installation. So they built a wall 0:09:14.960 --> 0:09:18.880 fifteen feet thick, thirteen feet high. It housed about one 0:09:18.960 --> 0:09:22.800 hundred and fifty soldiers, and that's where the name Kowloon 0:09:22.840 --> 0:09:24.800 Walled City came from from that wall. 0:09:25.160 --> 0:09:29.400 Yeah, and today's modern Hong Kong is populated mostly on 0:09:29.480 --> 0:09:32.040 the Kowloon Peninsula, but at the time it was the 0:09:32.080 --> 0:09:35.720 opposite Hong Kong Island was the population and this Kowloon 0:09:35.760 --> 0:09:39.400 place was just a little Nowhere's Ville essentially, And so 0:09:39.559 --> 0:09:41.160 China was like, yeah, we're going to keep this, We're 0:09:41.160 --> 0:09:43.880 going to keep it. An eye on the Brits like this. 0:09:44.400 --> 0:09:49.720 And after, I guess the Second Opium War led to 0:09:49.760 --> 0:09:53.120 the Second Convention of Peking where both the First Opium 0:09:53.120 --> 0:09:56.600 War and the second one found China just giving into 0:09:56.720 --> 0:09:59.480 tons of demands from the Brits, from the Americans, from 0:09:59.520 --> 0:10:01.800 I think the wrench who were all like, you have 0:10:01.840 --> 0:10:04.319 to open your market's dust because we want money from 0:10:04.360 --> 0:10:06.439 you guys. And one of the things that came out 0:10:06.480 --> 0:10:09.000 of it was the very famous ninety nine year lease 0:10:09.600 --> 0:10:13.960 that the Brits had on Hong Kong from China, which 0:10:13.960 --> 0:10:17.960 is why the UK administered Hong Kong for almost one 0:10:18.000 --> 0:10:20.360 hundred years essentially throughout the twentieth century. 0:10:21.120 --> 0:10:24.040 Yeah, So the other thing landwise that came out of 0:10:24.040 --> 0:10:27.079 that Second Opium War was they seated all of Hong 0:10:27.200 --> 0:10:32.120 Kong Island, the entire Kowloon Peninsula to the Britz. But 0:10:32.280 --> 0:10:35.760 keep in mind, they still have this walled city kind 0:10:35.760 --> 0:10:38.880 of right there, you know, nearest to the coast, within 0:10:38.920 --> 0:10:43.000 that territory. And so there was a little, I guess, 0:10:43.000 --> 0:10:44.840 a little loophole that they I don't know if they 0:10:44.920 --> 0:10:48.120 snuck it in there, but it was, you know, clearly written, 0:10:48.720 --> 0:10:51.720 but there was a clause in there basically that said 0:10:52.440 --> 0:10:54.320 it's so confusing, I'm not even going to read it. 0:10:54.679 --> 0:10:59.760 But the result was this weird, small walled city within 0:10:59.800 --> 0:11:03.720 this territory that Britain now controls was to stay there 0:11:03.800 --> 0:11:04.880 and to stay that way. 0:11:04.880 --> 0:11:09.200 And to stay Chinese territory. So this little tiny, six acre, 0:11:09.440 --> 0:11:16.480 three rugby pitch patch of land would be Chinese sovereign 0:11:16.559 --> 0:11:21.000 land in this British territory. Essentially, is what just got 0:11:21.040 --> 0:11:23.200 set up from the eighteen ninety eight Treaty. 0:11:24.120 --> 0:11:28.000 All right, so it's a weird situation, hmm. But that's 0:11:28.000 --> 0:11:30.920 what they're left with. Right after the British takeover there, 0:11:31.960 --> 0:11:34.959 some Christian missionaries went in. It started to get populated. 0:11:35.000 --> 0:11:37.920 The walled city did they built a church, Some pig 0:11:37.920 --> 0:11:41.079 farmers came in. They started squatting. People started squatting because, 0:11:41.120 --> 0:11:43.160 you know, it was protected by this great you know, 0:11:43.440 --> 0:11:44.600 I'm sorry, not the great wall. 0:11:44.960 --> 0:11:47.360 A great wall that was. 0:11:47.400 --> 0:11:50.240 When we were in Belize on vacation, we went up 0:11:50.360 --> 0:11:52.480 a Rio Grand. Emily kept saying, you go up the 0:11:52.520 --> 0:11:55.079 Rio grand to get to the ocean, and I was like, 0:11:55.120 --> 0:11:57.559 I don't think it's the Rio grand And it was 0:11:58.280 --> 0:11:58.960 Rio Grande. 0:12:00.240 --> 0:12:01.560 So the joke for the rest of the trip was 0:12:01.559 --> 0:12:02.880 we're going up a Rio Grand. 0:12:03.160 --> 0:12:03.720 Very cute. 0:12:03.920 --> 0:12:07.599 So there was a great wall, so that attracted squatters. 0:12:08.400 --> 0:12:11.439 It did, and one of the reasons why is because 0:12:11.480 --> 0:12:14.480 there was this idea that, okay, this is Chinese territory. 0:12:14.559 --> 0:12:17.800 So that was already kind of a thought in people's 0:12:17.840 --> 0:12:21.080 head that there weren't enough people there in this Christian 0:12:21.080 --> 0:12:24.720 missionary church kind of we're almost keeping an eye on 0:12:24.760 --> 0:12:28.240 things as far as the Brits administering Hong Kong were concerned, 0:12:28.240 --> 0:12:30.719 so they weren't paying much attention to it. And then 0:12:30.720 --> 0:12:34.640 World War II came along and Japan occupied big swaths 0:12:34.679 --> 0:12:36.679 of China, as we talked about in our Unit seven 0:12:36.840 --> 0:12:41.360 thirty one episode, and one of those swaths was the peninsula, 0:12:41.360 --> 0:12:44.679 the Kowloon Peninsula, and they tore down those thick, thick 0:12:44.679 --> 0:12:48.280 granite walls and they used it to build out Kai 0:12:48.400 --> 0:12:52.280 Tak Airport. And I think it was already there was 0:12:52.320 --> 0:12:54.400 kind of like an airfield or laying strip, and they 0:12:54.400 --> 0:12:56.920 turned it into like an actual airport. And for many, 0:12:56.960 --> 0:12:59.800 many years, for decades, Kai Tak Airport was the airport 0:12:59.840 --> 0:13:01.920 that you flew into when you flew to Hong Kong. 0:13:02.800 --> 0:13:05.719 Yeah, and it's uh, you know, they needed building. I 0:13:05.720 --> 0:13:09.600 love repurposing building materials. Sure, so when I heard that part, 0:13:09.600 --> 0:13:11.800 I was like, that's great. They don't need that wall 0:13:11.800 --> 0:13:14.400 there anyway, because it looks like it had a wall 0:13:14.400 --> 0:13:15.480 build around it when you. 0:13:15.480 --> 0:13:17.520 Looked at it, right, you know. That was kind of 0:13:17.520 --> 0:13:18.079 the funny thing. 0:13:18.240 --> 0:13:22.240 Yeah, which is ironic because it looks like they populated 0:13:22.280 --> 0:13:25.160 that city with a wall and then took the wall down. Yeah, 0:13:25.160 --> 0:13:28.760 but it was just so I mean, everyone knew how 0:13:28.800 --> 0:13:30.960 far out you could build, so it just kind of 0:13:31.040 --> 0:13:32.080 ended up looking that way. 0:13:32.280 --> 0:13:35.240 Right. It was, it was, and it was very densely. 0:13:34.880 --> 0:13:36.840 Populated, that's what I've heard. 0:13:38.440 --> 0:13:42.560 So after World War Two a couple of things happened 0:13:42.640 --> 0:13:47.760 geopolitically that kind of gave rise to the Kowloon Walled City. 0:13:48.520 --> 0:13:51.640 The name stuck, even though it didn't have the walls. Yeah, 0:13:51.679 --> 0:13:55.200 but a lot of the people who were refugees during 0:13:55.200 --> 0:13:58.640 the war made their way down to the Kowloon Peninsula 0:13:58.679 --> 0:14:01.480 and they were like, we're not Brits, We're Chinese, so 0:14:01.520 --> 0:14:04.680 we're gonna start squatting here. And the Brits were like, no, 0:14:05.600 --> 0:14:08.400 you know you're not squatting here. This is not Chinese, 0:14:08.480 --> 0:14:11.400 it's ours. It's part of Hong Kong. We basically own 0:14:11.480 --> 0:14:14.800 Hong Kong right now, so get out. And they evicted 0:14:14.840 --> 0:14:17.240 all the squatters in nineteen forty eight. By this time 0:14:17.280 --> 0:14:19.200 it had been there were like thousands of them, so 0:14:19.240 --> 0:14:22.080 it was a really big deal. And then the squatters 0:14:22.200 --> 0:14:23.640 just came back next week. 0:14:24.200 --> 0:14:25.680 That's right, they came back. The next week. 0:14:25.720 --> 0:14:27.440 They tried to kick them out again, and there was 0:14:27.440 --> 0:14:31.040 a riot this time, and I feel like, that's a 0:14:31.080 --> 0:14:35.480 pretty good time for our first break. Okay, sure, all right, 0:14:35.480 --> 0:14:59.280 we'll be right back. All right, So we're back Cawloon 0:14:59.320 --> 0:15:02.880 Walled city without the wall. Yeah, is being populated. They're 0:15:02.880 --> 0:15:06.680 getting kicked out, they keep coming back. There was a 0:15:06.800 --> 0:15:10.120 Chinese Civil war following World War Two, so that was 0:15:10.160 --> 0:15:13.040 one reason that people, you know, between the communists and 0:15:13.040 --> 0:15:16.240 the Nationalist Party, and that was one reason people were starting, 0:15:16.320 --> 0:15:17.000 you know, to get the. 0:15:16.920 --> 0:15:19.160 Heck out of you know, in there, I guess, yeah. 0:15:19.200 --> 0:15:21.480 And in nineteen forty nine, you know, the communist one 0:15:21.520 --> 0:15:25.200 they declared the People's Republic of China, and so that's 0:15:25.240 --> 0:15:28.120 when in the nineteen fifties things really kicked off with 0:15:28.360 --> 0:15:31.560 refugees trying to get in there and build up up up. 0:15:32.200 --> 0:15:34.600 Yeah. And if you were a refugee from China, that 0:15:34.680 --> 0:15:36.840 meant you were probably a nationalist or at the very 0:15:36.920 --> 0:15:39.320 least weren't a communist, and you just needed to get 0:15:39.360 --> 0:15:43.000 out of there. But you were, as far as you 0:15:43.040 --> 0:15:46.360 were concerned, better off living on this tiny patch of 0:15:46.440 --> 0:15:49.560 Chinese land because you still consider yourself a Chinese national. 0:15:49.920 --> 0:15:53.880 Then you were trying to assimilate into this British administered 0:15:54.360 --> 0:15:57.600 polony that was really Chinese, but the Brits didn't treat 0:15:57.640 --> 0:16:00.600 it like that, right, And so these people, these refugees 0:16:01.000 --> 0:16:07.000 became like this, they almost like freedom fighters. And even 0:16:07.080 --> 0:16:11.280 the CCP, the Chinese Communist government, they would they were 0:16:11.400 --> 0:16:14.000 they were promoting them. They would give them supplies. Sometimes 0:16:14.080 --> 0:16:17.000 they would give them food. Sometimes they would send emissaries 0:16:17.040 --> 0:16:19.360 down that would talk them up and be like, keep 0:16:19.440 --> 0:16:21.880 fighting the good fight. You know, we've got your back. 0:16:22.520 --> 0:16:25.880 And essentially, anytime the Brits tried to make a move 0:16:26.400 --> 0:16:30.280 on these residents of Kowloon Walled City, China would step 0:16:30.320 --> 0:16:33.520 in and be like, ah, that is Chinese territory. So 0:16:33.600 --> 0:16:36.680 no matter what these people did, the BRIT's hands were tied. 0:16:37.040 --> 0:16:39.720 And the whole reason why was not that China cared 0:16:39.760 --> 0:16:42.440 about them, but it was a thorn in Great britain side. 0:16:42.880 --> 0:16:46.640 There was this crazy, weird area that they did not 0:16:46.800 --> 0:16:49.320 have control over in the middle of this colony that 0:16:49.360 --> 0:16:52.760 they had taken from China, and China took every opportunity 0:16:53.000 --> 0:16:56.360 to basically twist that thorn in their side, and they 0:16:56.480 --> 0:16:59.360 used every every time that the people of Kowloon were 0:16:59.360 --> 0:17:01.880 put upon as a chance to step in and flex 0:17:01.920 --> 0:17:04.720 their whatever authority they did have in the area. Still. 0:17:05.480 --> 0:17:08.320 Yeah, So as a result of all this, the Brits 0:17:08.320 --> 0:17:13.280 were like, I don't even care anymore, Like this. 0:17:13.400 --> 0:17:16.400 Is such a pain. In the fifties and sixties, they. 0:17:16.280 --> 0:17:18.200 Took a real hands off approach and just kind of 0:17:18.280 --> 0:17:21.919 let what happened there happen there, and that led to 0:17:22.040 --> 0:17:26.800 a real influx of people and then that housing boom 0:17:25.640 --> 0:17:30.440 they didn't have. It looks like the only building code 0:17:30.480 --> 0:17:33.720 they have was you can't build anything over fourteen stories 0:17:33.760 --> 0:17:36.080 tall because it's right there next to the airport and 0:17:36.119 --> 0:17:38.240 you don't want to get a wing through your living 0:17:38.320 --> 0:17:42.400 room one day. So that was the only building code around, 0:17:42.960 --> 0:17:45.959 certainly the only one honored, because it was kind of 0:17:46.280 --> 0:17:49.160 anything goes inside there. And what we ended up with, 0:17:49.400 --> 0:17:51.720 you know, you mentioned an organic structure. It was ended 0:17:51.760 --> 0:17:56.400 up called by architects on organic megastructure, sure, because these 0:17:56.400 --> 0:18:01.800 buildings would sink down into their founday and start to tip, 0:18:02.080 --> 0:18:04.280 but they would tip over into the next one, and 0:18:04.320 --> 0:18:06.880 that one was tipping toward it. So they ended up 0:18:07.000 --> 0:18:10.040 calling like lovers buildings because at the top they were 0:18:10.040 --> 0:18:12.520 all kind of angled in and touching one another, and 0:18:12.560 --> 0:18:13.520 it's sort of sweet if you. 0:18:13.520 --> 0:18:14.800 Think about it, it is. 0:18:14.920 --> 0:18:18.399 It is kind of sweet. It was also at the 0:18:18.400 --> 0:18:22.600 same time, weirdly, architects in like the fifties and sixties 0:18:23.119 --> 0:18:25.600 there was kind of like an avant garde school of 0:18:25.640 --> 0:18:31.520 thought about just incredibly dense like community building and this 0:18:31.680 --> 0:18:34.679 is essentially a natural experiment. And it kind of showed 0:18:34.680 --> 0:18:37.679 that a lot of those theories held up kind of 0:18:37.680 --> 0:18:40.920 like the buildings held one another up, that people could 0:18:41.040 --> 0:18:43.640 just build out what they needed in ways that they 0:18:43.680 --> 0:18:46.560 needed in that spaces that were livable without having to 0:18:46.560 --> 0:18:49.280 be you know, spread out, without having to have government 0:18:49.320 --> 0:18:52.520 oversight and all that kind of stuff. Too. Those buildings, 0:18:52.840 --> 0:18:55.959 especially when they were lovers buildings pressed up against one another, 0:18:56.520 --> 0:19:01.080 they became so dense that sunlight would not penetrate the 0:19:01.119 --> 0:19:04.200 street level in a lot of cases. In most cases actually, 0:19:04.240 --> 0:19:07.080 like one of the premiums for a flat in the 0:19:07.160 --> 0:19:10.159 Kowloon Walld City was one that was outward facing or 0:19:10.200 --> 0:19:13.720 faced on the internal courtyard because they had sun exposure. 0:19:14.280 --> 0:19:19.480 Most of the apartments, businesses, dwellings, streets alleys in klouon 0:19:19.520 --> 0:19:22.280 Wald City were not exposed to sunlight at any point 0:19:22.320 --> 0:19:22.760 in the day. 0:19:23.440 --> 0:19:26.480 Yeah, and that you sent in this pretty good little YouTube. 0:19:26.520 --> 0:19:29.840 It was like fifteen twenty minutes long about this walled 0:19:29.840 --> 0:19:32.040 city that breaks it down. And at one point I 0:19:32.080 --> 0:19:33.960 paused it because they had I was wondering what these 0:19:33.960 --> 0:19:37.280 things cost. And I don't know what year this was 0:19:37.400 --> 0:19:42.560 that they gave us these numbers from. But a two 0:19:42.680 --> 0:19:46.280 hundred and eighty square foot flat cost twenty eight thousand 0:19:46.320 --> 0:19:49.480 American dollars. And if you're thinking, all right, that two 0:19:49.600 --> 0:19:51.680 hundred and eighty twenty eight thousand, that kind of makes sense. 0:19:52.119 --> 0:19:54.040 But that was without sunlight. 0:19:54.080 --> 0:19:57.960 I think the exterior facing four hundred and fifty square 0:19:57.960 --> 0:19:59.800 foot flat was sixty thousand dollars. 0:20:00.080 --> 0:20:01.680 Yeah, and I think that was in the sixties or 0:20:01.760 --> 0:20:06.400 seventies from a paper I saw, okay, But still one 0:20:06.440 --> 0:20:08.600 of the things I saw is that a reason that 0:20:08.640 --> 0:20:11.800 this was attractive to a lot of people, because over 0:20:11.840 --> 0:20:16.880 time the place didn't just attract Chinese nationalists and refugees 0:20:16.880 --> 0:20:19.640 from China. It attracted people who are like, oh, there's 0:20:19.760 --> 0:20:23.199 these really cheap living in here. You could get a 0:20:23.240 --> 0:20:27.160 flat that was about double the square footage of a 0:20:27.440 --> 0:20:30.879 like a government flat, like a council flat, public housing essentially, 0:20:30.960 --> 0:20:34.200 you'd call it, and it had a kitchen and a bathroom, 0:20:34.240 --> 0:20:37.440 and those were not guaranteed in the public housing flats 0:20:38.160 --> 0:20:40.520 that you would maybe even pay the same or more for. 0:20:40.720 --> 0:20:43.879 So there was like real incentive to move into this 0:20:43.920 --> 0:20:47.679 place if you didn't care about living cheek to jowl 0:20:47.680 --> 0:20:52.840 with your neighbors amid trash and abandoned appliances and all 0:20:52.880 --> 0:20:54.640