Tracing the Transformation of Kowloon Walled City (1): Mapping the Maze

The film Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In gave Kowloon Walled City global recognition, recreating the once lawless enclave as a dramatic set and turning it into a tourist draw. Yet back in the 1980s, one local resident spent four months painstakingly mapping the City’s streets alone. What began as a personal project became a vital guide for volunteers when the government announced clearance and needed to survey households.

Chan Cheung‑chuen grew up in Tung Tau Estate. As a boy he loved sneaking into the Walled City with classmates to explore its hidden corners. Later, after marrying, he rented a flat inside and stayed until demolition. He said his map‑making started as a hobby. Official maps were unreliable, and he was no draftsman, so he used a Qing‑era plan for the outline and Lands Department charts as a base. He divided the City into six zones and, after work each evening, walked the alleys with a torch, adding missing door numbers and correcting mistakes. To capture building shapes, he often knocked on doors. Some refused, but many neighbours welcomed him—“They even invited me to meals, and I drank plenty of sweet soup.”

With the Walled City long gone, Chan’s map remains one of the few ways to glimpse its dense, tangled passageways. The enclave’s “no‑man’s‑land” spirit is clear in its chaotic, unregulated construction. Developers, desperate to expand, often bought adjoining flats and turned them into corridors, creating a labyrinth so complex even long‑time residents struggled to grasp it. To convey these three‑dimensional intricacies, Chan devised symbols: arched black lines for routes that looked connected but lay on different levels, dotted lines for overhead walkways, and black dots for vertical stairways.