The Kowloon Walled City Was a Chinese Military Fort

In the second half of the twentieth century, the Kowloon Walled City became one of the most infamous places on Earth, known for its insane population density and criminal activity. Few people know that the reason this place of squalor and crime existed in the first place is that it was initially a Chinese military fort.

At the turn of the first millennium A.D., a military outpost was built in the area to overlook the salt trade. Over the course of the centuries, the outpost fell into disuse. However, after the Qing Dynasty lost the First Opium War and was forced to cede Hong Kong Island to the British, they upgraded the fort. Among those upgrades was the erection of a massive wall that would give its name to the "Walled City of Kowloon."

In 1898, the Walled City became a Chinese enclave within the colony of Hong Kong after the Chinese and British empires agreed on the lease of the New Territories—with the exception of the Walled City—for a period of 99 years. In the following decades, due to a jurisdictional vacuum, neither the British nor the Chinese would penetrate inside the Walled City out of fear it would cause a diplomatic conflict.

Slowly, lawlessness took hold over the Walled City.