(diaryland) February 12, 2010 - 11:14 a.m.

Excuse me, but Kowloon Walled City is (or was) the coolest thing. It could even beat shipping crate cities.

It was basically a seething mass of humanity packed into a teeny, tiny, rickety, organic space that had a law unto itself.

It was also featured in the movie Bloodsport. That's a cool movie. I like re-enact the fight scene at the end.

I'm not saying I would have wanted to live there, in Kowloon Walled City. Living in the squished Thessaloniki for two weeks, being constantly bumped by people in the car-clogged streets was kind of hard to cope with. But, dude, if I was a 12-year-old boy living in Hong Kong, I would have been all over that place like a rash.

I saw a photo of it from the 50s or something. It kind of looked like a normal high-rise area. But then, gradually, all the spaces between the buildings got filled up with extra bits of building somehow. It got completely dark in there.

I love this cross-section: http://www.doobybrain.com/2008/08/28/cross-section-of-kowloon-walled-city-buildings/

It also reminds me of the apartment complex that guy lived in in the movie Brazil.

'Nail houses' are good too. I'm going to go look at those now.