Product Description

Girard and Lambot spent four years exploring the notorious Walled City of Kowloon (Hong Kong), before it's final clearance in 1992. With over 320 photographs, 32 extended interviews, and essays on the City's history and character, this reprint is not only an informative glimpse of a now vanished landmark but a sensitive and penetrating portrait of a unique community.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #93579 in Books
• Published on: 1999-06-06
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 216 pages

Customer Reviews

One of the best books I've ever seen!
Everyone who I have ever shown this book to has had a deep reaction to it. I wouldn't handicap this book by calling it a photography book alone, although the photos are very powerful and prominent, but the text deserves recognition aswell. Plenty of personal stories of how people made this decaying city their home. Both epic and intimate. A testament of the human animal's ability to adapt and thrive. Thank god the authors got in to Kowloon before its destruction to create this book.

Also, as a side note: Any artist wanting reference material for decaying urban sprawl, look no further. This book makes for great city or science fiction reference, with unbelievable details (electrical boxes, pipes, hallways, stairwells, etc...)

City of Darkness--Life in Kowloon Walled City
I was born in Hong Kong and lived in the Walled City for 2 years with my mother when I was 10. Love the photos, history, and facts about the walled city, bring back lots of memories.

Content 5 stars; binding - update
Update - 5 stars: I wrote a review before and gave a 2-star rating because I had a quality issue with this book - the binding on my copy came unglued after looking through it once or twice. Well, the author, Greg Girard, actually tracked me down on facebook and kindly offered to send a replacement free of charge. This replacement copy has held up beautifully for the past year or so as it has been looked through numerous times by houseguests. The first copy I had must have just been flawed. I tried to change my rating to a 5-star but it doesn't seem to want to let me.

As I said in my original review, the photos are stunning, the text and interviews fascinating, and the quality of the paper excellent.