The Postmen of the Kowloon Walled City

There are millions of people doing jobs that you wouldn’t think twice about. Then, there are those who did those exact same jobs in the Kowloon Walled City. This unique setting—the most densely populated area in human history—turned the most mundane tasks into epic adventures. Two such men were Mr. Lui and Lam Po-chun, who served as the infamous enclave’s mail carriers for 15 and 12 years, respectively.

They covered a surface area of barely 0.027 square kilometres (0.01 square miles). However, this single city block squeezed in 350 interconnected high-rises housing 10,700 households, accounting for roughly 35,000 inhabitants.

To make matters worse, the neighborhood grew entirely organically without any municipal planning, resulting in a chaotic tangle of poorly lit, narrow alleyways and staircases. To top it off, there were only two working elevators in the entire enclave, which comprised buildings of up to 14 storeys.

To survive the brutal physical toll of climbing individual towers, the postmen learned to navigate the rooftops. They would climb to the top of one block, cross via makeshift gangways and rusting metal ladders to neighbouring buildings, and then descend back into the dark corridors.

Because the city grew chaotically, many blocks lacked official door numbers. Mail carriers like Mr. Lui frequently had to hand-paint or mark numbers on residents' doors just to establish a functioning sorting system.

Last but not least, everyday, they had to walk past triad gangs, gambling dens, opium parlors, and brothels. Fortunately, thanks to the vital work they carried out, these postmen were highly respected by citizens and gang members alike.