Kowloon Walled City Park, unique to Hong Kong

Kowloon Walled City was demolished in two phases in January 1987 and 1989, and completed in March 1990 and 1992. The affected residents mainly moved to Choi Ha Village in Kwun Tong. After the demolition work was completed in April 1994, the British Hong Kong government converted the original site into a park. The person in charge of the construction project at that time, Zhong Yijie, said that the reason for converting the walled city into a park was that the area was too close to the runway of Kai Tak Airport (closed in 1998). If residential buildings were built on the original site, it would hinder aircraft takeoff and landing. In addition, Kowloon City is densely populated and there are insufficient recreational facilities in the area, so it was decided to build a park on the original site. The area was originally planned to be named "Kowloon Walled City Park" because its original name "Kowloon Walled City" had long been completely lost. However, with the guidance of old residents during the demolition period, the Antiquities and Monuments Office excavated some relics and incorporated them into the design of the park or preserved them as exhibits for visitors to appreciate. Construction of the park began in May 1994. To ensure that the traditional design and concept could be restored in the park, the authorities hired a group of experienced technicians from mainland China to be responsible for the project. The project was completed in August 1995, and the opening ceremony was presided over by the then Hong Kong Governor Chris Patten on December 22 of the same year. Finally, the government renamed the park Kowloon Walled City Park, and these cultural relics were placed in the "Nanmen Nostalgia" scenic area. The former three-hallway and four-wing yamen was restored and rebuilt into an exhibition hall, displaying stone tablets related to the history of the walled city (including Zhang Yutang's handwritten characters "Moyuan" and "Shou" and the "Printing Meeting" of the 12th year of the Guangxu period, which records the expenses of the yamen soldiers' travel pay), historical pictures of the walled city, etc. #HongKong #HongKongGoodPlaces #HongKongHistoryandCulture #KowloonCity #KowloonWalledCityPark #KowloonWalledCityPark