What was life like inside the ‘densest place on earth’ ????  It was a colossal empire of little houses, stacked on top of each other, connected by staircases, snaking under dangling wires through corridors —– so dark —– even police were rumoured to be afraid of them.  There were 33,000 people within the space of 1 city block.  That was KOWLOON WALLED CITY, once considered the ‘densest settlement on earth.’

Before it was demolished, photographer Greg Girard spent years with collaborator Ian Lambot documenting this unique Hong Kong ‘phenomenon’, and remembers being amazed when he first saw it.  After all, the WALLED CITY was a kind of ‘historical accident’.  A former Qing Dynasty fortress, it never fully came under the regulation of the British Colonial Government in Hong Kong.  As a result, its residents were free to build their dwellings as they wished, ignoring safety codes.