Kowloon Walled City (World Wonder)

"It's a heterogeneous space, a space where it is not easy to generalize, a space where it looks horrible but where so many people are trying to live a normal life. It is like Hong Kong itself." - Leung Ping-kwan Kowloon Walled City is located in the northeast corner of Kowloon Peninsula of Hong Kong, and was once the most densely populated area in the world. The site was originally an state-owned saltpond of the Song Dynasty. During the Qing Dynasty, fortifications and artillery battery were built in this area to fight against rampart pirates and smugglers. After the Sino-Japanese War in 1898, the British and Qing Governments signed the Convention for the Extension of Hong Kong Territory and the New Territories were leased to Britain, but the Qing Government was unwilling to relinquish the control of the Kowloon Walled City. The British army drove out the Qing officials and soldiers, but in the end, no troops were stationed there, making Kowloon Walled City a special region of anarchy. The unregulated expansion of the Kowloon Walled City, with its dense concentration of buildings and residents, had led to an upsurge in triad activities, making it a hotbed of illegal activities such as prostitution, gambling and drug trafficking. The ultra-high density of vertical buildings and the mixed social landscape of the Kowloon Walled City have served as a source of inspiration for playwrights and artists, and have exerted a profound influence on post-modernism and cyberpunk works. However, after the signing of the Sino-British Joint Declaration between the People's Republic of China and the United Kingdom, recognizing the return of Hong Kong to China, the issue of resolving the uninhabitable Kowloon Walled City came to the surface. In 1987, the two countries reached an agreement to demolish the Walled City and resettle the local residents. After the complete demolition of the Walled City in 1994, the original site was converted into a park to display the artifacts and histor