【明報專訊】It is now a beautiful park situated among the hustle and bustle (喧鬧) of the city. But several decades ago it was Hong Kong's armpit (齷齪的地方), notorious for its poor hygiene, rampant crime and absence of government.
1. The background
Having surrendered Hong Kong Island to Britain, the Qing government (清政府) ceded the Kowloon Peninsula to the superpower under the Convention of Peking (《北京條約》) signed in 1860. The Qing government managed to keep the Walled City under the treaty as an exclave* (外飛地), but the British raided into the region and expelled the Chinese officials.
After the Second World War refugees began to flock to the Walled City. Chinese officials suggested to the Hong Kong colonial government that they take back the region. Their offer was rejected. At the same time inhabitants of the Walled City rejected British colonial rule as well. The Walled City, as a result, fell outside the governance of the Chinese, British and Hong Kong governments.
*Note: An exclave is a portion of territory of one state completely surrounded by territory of another or others, as viewed by the surrounding territory.
2. A hotbed of crime
The Walled City, its population peaking at 40,000, did not have its own water and electricity supply, nor were there any street sweepers. Hygiene standards were extremely poor there.
The Walled City was rife with crime. Illegal buildings mushroomed, prostitutes (娼妓) solicited in broad daylight, and drugs were widely circulated. Between 1973 and 1974 the government sent over 3,000 policemen into the Walled City to root out organised crime there. It ''survived'' the police operations.
Regarding the Walled City as Chinese territory, its inhabitants set up a ''People's Congress'' to govern themselves. But the congress wasn't really under the Chinese government. The place denied governance until the 1980s, when the British and Chinese governments began their talks on Hong Kong's future.
3. Decision to act
The future of Hong Kong became certain with the signature of the Sino-British Joint Declaration (中英聯合聲明). There was no reason why the Walled City should remain as it was. In 1987 the two countries agreed that the Walled City should be demolished and its inhabitants relocated. The relocation was carried out in two phases, in 1987 and 1989 respectively.
It is easy to imagine that not every inhabitant was willing to leave. Negotiations over their compensation dragged on, but on 28 November 1991 police officers entered the Walled City, destroyed door chains and forced inhabitants out.
Having demolished the walled city, the Hong Kong government turned the place into a park in 1994.
4. Cultural depictions
Though it was the filthiest (最污穢的) corner of our city, the Kowloon Walled City was well depicted in films and literature. The 1993 film Crime Story (《重案組》), which stars Jackie Chan (成龍) and includes real scenes of building explosions, was partly shot in the deserted Walled City.
In The Bourne Supremacy (《叛諜追擊2：機密圈套》) , a spy thriller later adapted into a film starring Matt Damon (麥迪文), the author describes the Walled City as a place ''made of hard, high steel'', where a congested open market ''runs along the street in front of the row of dark run-down flats-shacks haphazardly (雜亂地) perched on top of one another'', giving the impression that ''at any moment the entire blighted complex will collapse under its own weight''.
