July 22, 2025 • 53 mins
This week, Sierra traumatizes Alecia with the story of the Kowloon Walled City. Trauma may not be the right word, but there is some serious claustrophobia there. The city doesn't even seem real with how people were living but it is truly fascinating and we hope that you enjoy it. Keep it twisted and don't drop garbage on your neighbors!
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Resources used in today's episode:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-rj8m7Ssow&themeRefresh=1
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/kowloon-walled-city
https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/kowloon-walled-city-photos
https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2024/07/kowlooon-walled-city-illustration/
https://www.visualcapitalist.com/kowloon-walled-city/ https://cityofdarkness.co.uk/history/
https://www.timeout.com/hong-kong/things-to-do/kowloon-walled-city-park-guide
Want more twisted content? Consider joining our Patreon for some welcome goodies and 100+ bonus episodes ready for you to unlock. Your support truly means the world to us.
https://www.patreon.com/twistedanduncorked
You can buy us a drink on Buy Me A Coffee https://www.buymeacoffee.com/twistedpod
Watch on our YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/@twistedanduncorked
Follow us on all of the socials:
Instagram and TikTok @twistedanduncorked
Facebook @twistedanduncorkedpodcast
Resources used in today's episode:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-rj8m7Ssow&themeRefresh=1
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/kowloon-walled-city
https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/kowloon-walled-city-photos
https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2024/07/kowlooon-walled-city-illustration/
https://www.visualcapitalist.com/kowloon-walled-city/ https://cityofdarkness.co.uk/history/
https://www.timeout.com/hong-kong/things-to-do/kowloon-walled-city-park-guide
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello, twisted humans.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Do you find yourself wanting to know more about the
latest murder, conspiracy, cult, or haunting.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Than this is the podcast for you.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
I'm Alicia and I'm Sierra, and this is Twisted and Uncorked.
You are listening to episode two oh four of Twisted
and Uncorked, and today I have something what is it?
Speaker 1 (00:28):
No longer their favorite podcast?
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Oh, I'm just trying new Ever since two hundred, I've
been trying new intros a lot of time. Either I
don't think maybe, no, no, you did.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
You definitely did. But my episode last week I said
two zero three and you were instantly offended. So I guess
that was new.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Yeah. Yeah, the zero was too much for me. I
have something a little different for you all today. Remember
last week and I told you a fun fact about
the moon, and I said, I learned it from some
girl I've been watching on YouTube. That girl's YouTube channel
is Dommy Lee Arch and she's also how I found
(01:12):
the disappeared thing I'm gonna tell you about today. But
speaking of fun facts, do you have one for me?
Speaker 1 (01:20):
I do, and it is just simply penguin mouths.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
Oh god, what about them?
Speaker 1 (01:30):
Have you ever seen a penguin's mouth.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
I guess not.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
It's the scariest thing in the world.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Oh, actually, yes, I have. It has like backwards teeth. Yeah, yeah,
who knew that away penguins like secretly from the upside down?
Who knew that they were all cute and cuddily on
the outside. I saw a video the other day. They
have like, I.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
Shit, you not like seventy teeth just crammed in there. Yea,
and it looks like shark teeth. There's layers.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
Yeah, it looks like it doesn't it like help them
gobble down fish.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
Fish something.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
But it's pretty weird.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Like, yeah, I just need you to google penguin mouth.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
Oh, I've seen it before and I don't want to
see it again.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
I need you for the people. Oh I need to
know you're a real reaction because I saw one for
the first time like two days ago, and I will
never look at a penguin the same way.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
Hey, I got to pet a pangin one time. No,
it's awesome.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
Well it's good. Think I didn't try and bite your
hand fuck.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
It off, because oh it is. It's like their tongue
are teeth, their roof of their mouth our teeth. Everything
is teeth. Everything is teeth.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
Looks like little razor blades going down everywhere.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
Everywhere.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
It's the thing that nightmares are made out of. And
I don't like it at all. It's it's giving penny wise. Yeah,
that's what it's doing with his teeth. No, so that's
my fun cut. It's that I learned that a few
days ago, and I needed to ruin penguins for more people. Yeah,
(03:15):
snails weirdly have similar mouths to penguins with all the teeth. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
Oh, I found a snail fun fact, but it's not
today's fun fact, so I can't tell you.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
Is that most people kill snails like you did a
few years ago and just ruined like that. Do you
know how many people look at me like I'm crazy
because I'm like, you should never move a snail, you're
probably killing it. And they're like well, And then I
tell them why and they're like, why do you know
(03:48):
so much about snail? Why?
Speaker 2 (03:51):
I do?
Speaker 1 (03:53):
And every time I move my sea snails, I think
of this. But snee snails, as it turns out, are
similar but different to land snails, and that they're more movable,
like if you just like wiggle their shell back and
forth a couple of times. They'll like button section and
then you can move them. Well, they like to crawl
(04:17):
back into the filter reservoir of my tank, and it's
not safe for them back there, so I get to
play the game of taking apart the back of my
tank and scooping them out on like a semi regular basis.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
Fun times.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
Yeah, I bought snails to help my fish, and then
my fish died, so now I'm just stuck with three
little snails and I like them. I mean I did
name them after the Jonas brothers, so Kevin calls them Larry,
Curll and Mo. So we like. And you saw the
video of their creepy little mounts. I'm sorry we've officially
(04:57):
gone to a different level of podcast and clearly I'm
fixated on certain things. What is your fun fact?
Speaker 2 (05:04):
Well, my fun fact is that the baseball team, the
Atlanta Braves, used to be located in Boston. They also
had many other names before they eventually became the Atlanta Braves.
Originally they were called the Boston bean Eaters. The reason
(05:27):
is because a Boston cannery was the first to invent
a can that preserved baked beans for armies and whatnot
to take with them and eat on the go the
Boston bean eaters.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
I love that fun fact, and somehow I feel like
that fun fact is related to your case. It's not
even the drink recipes that I received. No, it's not,
but oh shit, look at her.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
Yeah, this episode as well with a drink that is
called red bean ice. Red bean ice is a popular
dessert drink in Hong Kong and is made by cooking
red beans with rock sugar until they're soft and creamy,
then adding ice.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
A bit of coconut milk, and a.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
Good amount of evaporated milk. Some places add a scoop
of ice cream on top, add booze if you choose.
I would assume Bailey's or some other cream style liquor
would go best here. Did you make this drink?
Speaker 1 (06:32):
I did, but I just made it as is, and
I had a glass of wine before we were recorded.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
Have you tried it?
Speaker 1 (06:40):
I have, and I actually really like it. I didn't
think that I was gonna like it. It gives me
the same vibe that my Grandma's rice pudding gives me,
like something that shouldn't be sweet and this kind of
weird mixed together kind of works a little bit.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
Yeah. I don't like nutty funks in the bottom of my.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
Straw though, so hence why I chose to drink it
without a straw. I also chose to put it in
my witch Is Brew cup because it is covered and
no one needs to see that it looks like somebody
ship in the bottom of my glass. Sierra is again
somehow looks better.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
Yeah, definitely better. You don't like it, Oh, it's yeah,
I don't like it.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
It's weird, weird, like I would never drink it all
the time, but I like it as a one off experience.
Sierra sent me two drink recipes, yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
My backup drink. Well, when I saw that this was
a popular drink in Hong Kong, I just had to
try it for this episode because when on earth would
I ever try when beans in a drink?
Speaker 1 (07:49):
Right, But the funniest part is I told Kevin to
boil beans for me today in the croc pod because
I texted you at ten thirty forgetting that you had
sent it to me a few days and then I
looked and I was like, oh, fuck, not home. So
I was like, Kevin, can you take the can of
red beans in the cupboard and cruck up it's sugar.
(08:11):
Oh my gosh. I mean he's like, I'm just gonna
send you the screenshot of our text message because it's
just so funny. He's like, what the fuck are you
guys drinking tonight? And then when I told him what
it was, he was interested in it because he really
likes Asian cultures, but he didn't end up trying it
because he's lame anyways. Round two was a little more whitewashed.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
Yeah, my backup drink is because I know some people
might not like that. Also, beans take time to cook,
so maybe you don't want to waste your time cooking beans.
This is Hong Kong style milk tea, which became popular
around the nineteen fifties when Britain controlled Hong Kong. It
was influenced by British tea culture and is made with
(08:58):
black tea altered through cloth sacks, topped with about as
much evaporated or condensed milk to give it a very
silky mouthfeel.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
It's fine.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
I mean I can taste that it's English black tea
and evaporated milk, like that's all.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
It tastes like to me, so, oh, you did both
of them. I'm obsessed that you did both of them. Okay,
I only did the one, and it's too sweet for me,
and I don't know, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
It is nutty, and it is kind of nutty yet
I evaporated.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
Milk just always tastes too sweet to me, like even
without adding sugar to it, you know what I mean. Yeah,
it's like a crime scene in my glass.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
It's it's interesting, for sure. I'm probably gonna be drinking
a lot of water this episode.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
Yeah, Sarah, every time you know what in I'm pouring,
I want wine for myself because I don't think I'm
gonna be able to get very far with how sweeteness.
But I will say that out of two hundred and
four episodes, we've had some bangers. So it's about time
(10:17):
that we get a yeah drink.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
Yeah, I mean, listen, if you are in Hong Kong,
I bet you're like, fuck, yeah, our drink is finally
being you know, broad showcased. What do you call it?
You know whatever, pasted? Yeah, I'm broadcasting broad Show nineteen fifty. Anyway,
(10:43):
the drinks are interesting. I'm glad I tried them. I
would might try them if I actually visited Hong Kong,
because they probably make it better than me. But also
it's cool that I now know how to make this.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
I agree.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
All right, So now that we've got those out of
the way, we are going to take a quick break
to hear a proomo from Believing the Bizarre. Hey, what's up.
Speaker 3 (11:09):
I'm Charlie and I'm Tyler, and we are Believing the Bizarre,
a paranormal podcast that dives into the unknown and unusual.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
Every Tuesday. We discuss hauntings, cryptids, aliens, uophone counters, conspiracies,
and more.
Speaker 3 (11:22):
And we break down whether or not we find them believable.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
All right, listen, if you're not paying for electricity, you're
not paying for dinner.
Speaker 3 (11:29):
Saw a terrifying looking face pressed to the window with
gaping eyes. Must reach it when the laughter stops suddenly
and a sound behind me made me turn around like sorry,
Like I was gonna do it, but then I got
I had SpaceX.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
So we got you covered.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
Whether you like horror or laughs or both, we actually
really hope it's both.
Speaker 3 (11:48):
With over three million downloads, you'll be joining a bizarre
community that we promises more than just Mothman in our parents.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
We even take creepy stories from our listeners and turn
them into episodes.
Speaker 3 (12:00):
Check out Believing the Bizarre on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
Believing the Bizarre a podcast as bizarre as you are.
All right, let's get into this week's episode, about a
place near Hong Kong that no longer exists. So this
episode requires quite a bit of history, and we all
know that I don't love history, so I'm going to
try to do my best to dumb it all down,
(12:26):
get through it quickly, focus on the fun parts, and
get straight to the interesting bits. But first, there's this
China has been through a lot of shit, and actually
pretty recently, one of those shit things was a war
with Britain in which Britain was kind of super shitty
for China and Britain were trading things, but Britain didn't
(12:47):
have anything that China wanted, so they would ask for
money for their goods instead of the bartering system. Britain
hated that, and they did actually have one thing that
some people in China wanted, opium, which, if you don't know,
is basically heroin. This drug was legal in Britain at
the time. We're talking eighteen hundreds. However, even China, no, sorry,
(13:14):
it was legal in Britain at the time, even though
they knew it was highly addictive because it's still made money.
But China was already on their way to cleaning up
the streets of this drug. They were like, no, we're
not doing all that. They saw what it did to
their people and refused to allow Britain to bring it in.
Britain didn't really seem to care about those laws and
would ship it anyway. But when it was caught once,
(13:37):
the Chinese government burned the entire shipment. This pissed off Britain,
who was stronger than China at the time, and so
they used this destruction of their goods as an excuse
to invade China and take over their territories. In an
attempt to stop the fighting, a treating was a A
(13:58):
treaty was signed in which China had to pay a
big find to Britain, give them the island of Hong
Kong for ninety nine years, and allowed them to have
more trade ports, so they lost just a few years later.
Britain seemed to think that they didn't have quite enough
(14:18):
control over China, and so they invaded again. This time
was with the help of France. Britain's excuse was that
a Chinese officer went aboard a British ship to arrest
Chinese citizens for whatever rebellion related crimes they were committing,
and Britain said that the Chinese official lowered the British
flag while on the ship, so sure, let's war about it.
(14:43):
France decided to join in because the Chinese had executed
a French missionary for trying to spread Christianity, which is
a little more understandable of a reason to war. I guess, like,
don't kill innocent people anyway. So this time again China lost,
and so they had to give up even more trade ports.
(15:05):
They legalized the importation of opium sadly, They gave freedom
for Christian missionaries to move freely through their land. They
provided residents for foreign envoys in Beijing, and they gave
Britain control of the southern portion of the Kowloon Peninsula,
which brings us to the heart of this episode. Kowloon
(15:29):
is a city located north of Hong Kong Island and
is considered the mainland portion of the Hong Kong region.
Kowloon means nine dragons and was given this name by
the last emperor of the Song dynasty, Xiao Bing. He
was only six years old when he became emperor, and
(15:52):
unfortunately he died less than a year later. But in
his rule, he fled to this area to try and
surve being targeted by other troops. He saw that there
were eight mountains surrounding the Kowloon area and said it
looked like eight dragons. But emperors were often compared to dragons,
(16:14):
and so one of the older men in the little
Emperor's entourage heard him say bat long, meaning eight dragons,
and corrected him saying, no, nine dragons or gaolong, which
eventually was English to kowloon. Is that kind of adorable?
Speaker 1 (16:33):
That that's super cool? I know? And given that I
am currently reading the fourth Wing series, Yeah to dragon,
perfect timing. The minute you mentioned dragons, I'm like, oh, okay.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
Well, unfortunately that's all about dragons. When Britain got control
of the southern portion of Kowloon, China was still allowed
control of their military fort located there, called the Kowloon
Wald City. It was called this because as a military fort,
it was walled in. About seven hundred people lived there
(17:09):
at the time, in nineteen eighty nine. No, eighteen eighty nine,
that's right, yeah, eighteen eighty nine.
Speaker 1 (17:18):
Sorry, they're like, I beg your finest pardon that I wrote.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
That wrong in eighteen eighty nine. But Britain didn't like
not having control, and at one point they sent troops
in to spy on the people inside. However, even with
China technically being in charge of this walled city, the
people there didn't really want to live in the area
(17:42):
surrounded by British control, so most people had already moved
out anyway. There were only about one hundred and fifty
people there at that time. So I have sent you
a document with a bunch of photos. If you pull
up that document, the first thing you're going to see
is through photos and then a big blank space. Do
(18:03):
not go past the blank space, but if you can
share that the first I think three maybe two. The
first couple of photos show the fortress that was the
military Kowloon Walled City. Yes, so the first picture is
what it looks like if you're standing, you know, outside,
(18:24):
looking at it. If you go down you can see
the wall that kind of yeah, just a wall go down,
just a tiny bit. Okay, Yeah, so that's what from
an aerial view, that's what it looks like. It's walled
in and there's just a couple of buildings there. Okay,
all right, so a few years later we'll go back
(18:44):
to that in a little bit. Okay, a few years
later in nineteen twelve, the Qing dynasty and did its
rule over China, of whom the fort belonged to, so
it became a bit confusing. Who owns it next? British
Hong Kong, I'm sorry, British Hall Hong Kong or the
new Nationalist China, because technically China owned it, but it
(19:06):
was Ching dynasty China that owned it. Now Qing dynasty
has been given to nationalists China or I guess taken
by nationalist China. So anyway, neither of them took care
of it. What happened? Did you get a bean?
Speaker 1 (19:20):
I did I apologize for that noise amidst spira sentence there, guys,
because it dt to mute myself and that was real gross.
It's it is a choking hazard, and you might I
(19:43):
don't know if there's a good way to drink it
with a straw, you get chunks. When you don't drink
it with a straw, you get.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
Beans in the well. Like I said, in the Hong
Kong they put ice cream on top, so I think
they just eat it with a spoon, beans and all.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
Yeah, I feel like doing it wrong. You got it.
Next time we try this, if ever, we will put
ice cream on it.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
Yeah, that'll be fun. So neither took care of it.
Kowloon Wall City was starting to fall apart. It was
labeled Chinatown on a British map and people would go
stare at it like a little piece of history. Around
four hundred squatters were living in the abandoned buildings on
the six point four acre area, and right around the
(20:29):
time that Hong Kong wanted to demolish it, in China
started saying no, that's actually ours. Another war broke out,
this time between China and Japan. During the Warring Times.
The walls were taken down from the walled city to
be used as a sea wall by Japan, and an
(20:49):
airport called Kai Tak was built and then expanded on
directly next to the Kowloon Walled City in Wald City
that's not any more Wald, The Wald City, as it's
still known itself, was mostly in shambles. People fleeing from
(21:11):
war torn towns, or people who just didn't agree with
the politics of the war, or people who were experiencing
homelessness because of the war, or opium addictions or whatever
would go to this small six point four acres of
land where no one seemed to care what was happening.
The four hundred squatters quickly became two thousand. But the
(21:35):
wars didn't stop insert World War two, and people didn't
stop fleeing, and China didn't want to fuss about this
territory during the rest of the war, and British Hong
Kong already kind of had control over it, being in
the middle of Hong Kong Region, which they controlled, so
everyone in power thought it would be best to just
not touch the place. Don't touch it, don't look at it.
(21:56):
It's not worth a bigger fight. Just let it deteriorate.
But it wasn't exactly deteriorating. Actually it was growing. The
six point four acre area couldn't grow right the area
itself because only this specific plot of land was what
was ungoverned. So the people fleeing to this area looking
(22:20):
for somewhere to live. Built on every single inch of
the six point four acres. Sorry, did you get it?
Speaker 1 (22:35):
No? And it's maddening me.
Speaker 2 (22:42):
The homes, which were more like wooden shacks, were touching
each other, they were so close. But then in nineteen
fifty a fire came through and ruined many of the
homes of the now more than five thousand residents. And
let me double check breaking the photos that I sent you,
(23:04):
because I think there's another photo that I forgot to
send you in the next group. So this is the
seven hundred on the left is what it looked like
originally in nineteen fifty when the fire went through. This
is what it had been built to. People were putting
little wooden shacks everywhere, like every square inch of that
(23:25):
land was being filled. Are you able to zoom in?
Speaker 1 (23:30):
Let me see?
Speaker 2 (23:37):
Yeah, there we go. So if you go up just
a tiny bit, it says these dots, each point is
an inhabitant. So if that's so crazy, right, Like it's
showing the density of the area. So in nineteen fifty,
there's five thousand people in that tiny six point four acres,
(24:00):
that's how dense it is. But then there's a fire. Okay,
so I continue. But that didn't stop the current residence
or new residents from living in the six point four
acres of ungoverned land. In fact, it gave them an
excuse to build it better, better in terms of still
(24:21):
unregulated though, and as the population continued to grow and
land was running out, people began to build up, until
eventually Kowloon Walled City looked like one giant apartment complex
from afar and like a sci fi movie up close.
(24:43):
It eventually consisted of quote three hundred and fifty buildings,
almost all between ten and fourteen stories high, occupied by
eighty five hundred premises, ten thousand, seven hundred households, and
more than thirty three thousand residents.
Speaker 1 (25:02):
End quote, I beg the garden.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
The building heights stopped at ten or fourteen because the
Kai Tech airport was so close that the planes would
literally run into the building if they went any higher,
like constant noise all day long, airport noise literally flying
right over top of you. Numbers today looking back say
(25:27):
that at its peak, there were fifty thousand people living
on this six point four acre property. There is a
twelve acre property behind my house, and I can't imagine
fifty thousand people there, let alone half that space. But
let me explain the situation in caloun Wald City. People
(25:51):
coming to live in the ungoverned kloun Wold City had
jobs before they fled to the area. Building developers, restauranters, doctors, dentists, bakers, teachers.
The building developers came in and helped build the buildings
up and on top of each building, literally on top
of each other. The electricians helped wire the place from
(26:17):
the few electricity ports that had already existed, not with
new ones, because this is an ungoverned area with all
wires on the outside of the building, so that they
weren't risking another fire. The entrepreneurs turned the bottom buildings
with the most reliable electricity into little stores and shops
(26:41):
to provide people there with necessities as well as to
make money. But again not governed, so there's no one
to ensure they're following building codes or doing things safely.
There's not even any real police. There's actually a crime syndicate.
The triads who were kind of controlling the place, not
(27:04):
to the point that everyone there was involved, but ensuring
things were running smoothly. For example, if an addict wanted
their fix from a dealer, the dealer would make sure
that the addict went and collected trash from the crimes
to do get homes and businesses first, and by businesses
I mean brothels and gambling dens, and also pharmacies because
(27:28):
sometimes Chinese or Hong Kong police would walk by the
walled city on the street just to check on people,
and if they found drugs on these people, then the
police would get suspicious and have a reason to come in.
So the drug dealers would literally shoot up or have
the addicts smoke or take the drugs in their quote
unquote pharmacy. You can only take drugs here, you cannot
(27:51):
buy drugs here.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
Wild concept, but all right.
Speaker 2 (27:56):
And this pharmacy wasn't the only weirdly operated business. There
was no better business bureau checking that everything everyone was
doing everything they were supposed to do. The many doctors
and dentists had no licenses or degrees, and while the
people who lived in the walled city used these services
as a necessity, people not from this area would come
(28:19):
and frequent these businesses also in order to get better prices.
It's a really cheap dentist might as well go to
the really cheap dentist. There were hundreds of tiny factories
that produced things like metal or plastic or golf balls
or whatever. They could make money from movie theaters, adult
movie theaters, a strip club, some communal bathrooms, and so
(28:44):
many little shops. Some of the stores that existed were
literally butcher shops that sold dog meat. They openly sold
dog meat really cheap to other restaurants so they could
save money. But then that put the restaurants in Kowloon
Walled City in a bad spot because people coming to
(29:05):
eat there thought that the restaurant must get their meat
from the dog place. So cook started butchering animals right
in front of the customer. If you ordered chicken, they'd
bring out the live chicken and kill it so you
could have a peace of mind that it was chicken
and not dog.
Speaker 1 (29:24):
That is one approach to solving stereotype.
Speaker 2 (29:29):
You want chicken, look chicken.
Speaker 1 (29:32):
M okay, I no longer want the chicken so much.
I'm actually gonna leave now. I don't like. What would
you do if that happened to you? Traumatized? Yeah that's
the I know how much you love chickens. Yeah, no,
one needs to see that.
Speaker 2 (29:53):
Aside from the weird businesses, there were community style places
here as well. There were multiple schools, there were churches.
There were rooftops where children's children played together. But also
on the roofs, people from higher floors took their trash
there because it was easier than climbing all the way down.
Some people just threw their trash out the window, but
(30:16):
not everyone had a window. Also, most of the wiring
didn't reach all the way to the top floors, so
they didn't have electricity and would use the rooftops for
drying their clothes or whatever else they needed the sunlight
and heat. This is going to be yeah, go ahead
and pull up those photos again. We are going to
(30:41):
We're going to get a view of the rooftops after
I show you the new congestion. So remember I said
the inhabitants, right, this is on the left there you muted, well,
(31:01):
I said, quick before Yeah, And it is grown grown
to this fifty thousand inhabitants. It is literally the most
dense place to ever exist. If you scroll down again
just a little, you can see all of them together.
(31:24):
There you go, Oh, this is how it how it grew.
Speaker 1 (31:30):
Why do I feel like this is our future.
Speaker 2 (31:33):
M and then go down another one and this is
what it looks like. Those are the little rooftops. If
you scroll one more you'll see an up close of
the rooftops where children literally played what Yeah, so keep
(31:58):
it in mind.
Speaker 1 (31:58):
Looks like a bar buildings got put in one of
those car press Yeah crushers, that's what that looks like. Yeah, Like,
how do you even get to what happens if you
live here?
Speaker 2 (32:11):
Oh, we'll talk about that in a little bit. Let
me continue.
Speaker 1 (32:15):
Oh my god.
Speaker 2 (32:18):
So there were only eight water sources down on the
bottom of the city, so some people took the opportunity
to lug water from the bottom to the upper areas
for a price. And these upper areas weren't just upstairs
and down hallway. There weren't many hallways. There were so
many people that nearly every inch was used for livable space.
(32:41):
Each person got about forty square foot of space to themselves,
although to themselves is kind of an understatement. Sometimes to
get to your own living space, you'd have to go
forty square feet, yes, for thirty five dollars a month.
Speaker 1 (32:58):
I'm pretty sure my desk surface area is forty square feet. Wait,
hold on, Maybe I don't know how big forty square
feet is, but that seems really small.
Speaker 2 (33:14):
Yeah, forty square feet is like a closet.
Speaker 1 (33:18):
Square foot two. Yeah, it's like a closet, like a pantry,
like a small closet, like an entry closet, not a
walk in closet.
Speaker 2 (33:29):
Let's clear, right, right, Jesus, this is like a closet
smaller than Harry Potter lived in.
Speaker 1 (33:36):
Okay, I'm claustrophobic already, just with the images I've seen,
I would not survive here. Oh you just wait.
Speaker 2 (33:46):
Sometimes you had to go up one way. Sorry, Sometimes
you had to to get to your own living space,
you had to go through someone else's living space. Sometimes
you had to go up one way to get to
a lower floor a block way. There were even routes
you could take to go all the way around the
six point four acres without ever touching the ground outside
(34:08):
or seeing sunlight. Going through homes to get to homes
wasn't always a bad thing, though. People here were very much,
very close.
Speaker 1 (34:20):
I don't really have a Choy family. I'm so sorry.
I'm so mad that this exists.
Speaker 2 (34:27):
For example, older women would watch the children of younger women,
so the young women could get chores done while their
husbands were away working. People helped each other all throughout
the Kowloon walled city structure, but traveling through the building
was a bit dangerous and quite gross. Like I said,
people were often throwing their trash out of windows, and
(34:49):
also there were attics and gangs here, so sometimes you'd
come across a dead person kind of just lying in
a walkway until someone moved the body to honestly, who
knows where. When people walked through the walkways, which they
called catwalks, which were only three to six feet wide,
(35:09):
by the way, they would carry umbrellas because there was
a persistent dripping of who knows what. So there are
a lot more photos, and I know this is a
mostly audio podcast, but I really want you to see
them because they are just so interesting.
Speaker 1 (35:29):
And if you're refused, come follow us on social media
where you can see those photos.
Speaker 2 (35:36):
Before we get to this place disappearing, we're gonna go
through all of the photos together. You can pull those up.
Speaker 3 (35:45):
There.
Speaker 2 (35:46):
Wun No, some of them are fun, I guess, all right,
So we start zoomed out. This is the outermost zoom
of this place. You can see all around it. You know,
it's Kowloon City is a city, but Kowloon Walled City
was ungoverned. So the walled city is the really tall one.
(36:06):
Everything around it is just you know, Kloon City regular.
Speaker 1 (36:10):
Okay, yeah, all right, scrolled down myself by accident.
Speaker 2 (36:16):
This is the side view of it. If you scroll down,
I think there's a zoom in of the side view.
Oh so this is then. Most of the buildings are
made of concrete. They just you know, kind of put
up these metal slat thingies and poured concrete down until
it filled up. And that's how they built their walls. What. Yeah,
(36:44):
that is a zoomed in really close version of somebody's balcony.
All like the balconies were you know, screened in because dangerous.
Yeah wow, this is from down on the streets, the
bottoms were, where the shops were.
Speaker 1 (37:03):
It looks like each one of these little oophs are
somebody's living area.
Speaker 2 (37:11):
Yeah, oh my god, it's crazy. And then okay, so
this is do you see that little tiny picture there
and how there's a little red square. So they cut
out a portion of that photo and zoomed in.
Speaker 1 (37:26):
Really, oh my god, you can see there's kids playing.
Speaker 2 (37:33):
You can see on the right side that it shows
you like there's a little school over there. If you
go down the red rooms.
Speaker 1 (37:41):
Or brothel looks like a war's waldo. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (37:45):
Right to the right of the brothel is where the
the catwalk is. That's the only like stairs in the
whole place. You have to like maneuver your way through there,
and then there's no hallways, so to get to the
right side for insan and you'd have to go up
the catwalk and then goes through everybody's house all the
way to the right.
Speaker 1 (38:06):
Like I have no work. It's fucking crazy, Like I
feel like I experience a level of privilege now that
I'm willing to tea.
Speaker 2 (38:14):
It's like a fucking video game, like levels of hell.
Speaker 1 (38:20):
I don't know. Yeah, it's like, yeah, it's like a
it's like a bad video game.
Speaker 2 (38:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (38:28):
Mix though.
Speaker 2 (38:30):
So this is the mailman who is delivering the mail
at this place. Only some people got mail because originally
there were only a couple of buildings, so there's not
very many there's not very many mail boxes, but somehow
the mailman knew how to get to the ones that
he could. That's the catwalk that's how dirty it is.
You can see there's like pipes and wires hanging above
(38:50):
his head.
Speaker 1 (38:51):
It's like underground, like New York City.
Speaker 2 (38:55):
Like. Yes, the next picture is another photo of the
inside inside one of the catwalks. That's why people wore
umbrellas or used umbrellas because it's like wet all the time.
Just again another one, guys, I would not survive this,
(39:17):
I think is Oh, yeah, so that's aimed up at
like that's where people would throw their trash out the windows,
and so it's just like hanging on the wires and
ship because there's wires everywhere.
Speaker 1 (39:31):
It would smell so bad, so bad, like a dead body,
and they're literally.
Speaker 2 (39:38):
Selling dog meat in there too, like like butchering animals,
like right in there. Yeah, it would smell gross.
Speaker 1 (39:47):
It would smell like But then you go down.
Speaker 2 (39:51):
And that picture kind of looks really cool, like I
would visit that. I go down again, normal busy city.
Now it looks kind of almost beautiful, right, yeah, like
it's a context at night. Yeah, and school to the
last one, that's an awesome photo. Yeah, like it just
(40:16):
looks it looks like the coolest apartment you could ever
live in. But little did you know inside is fucking
house of horrors, a healthscape.
Speaker 1 (40:26):
Yeah, oh my god.
Speaker 2 (40:29):
Yeah. So we're gonna get to that link here in
a minute, but let me continue in eight. Sorry, no,
we're to the nineteenth now. In nineteen eighty seven, it
was announced that the place needed to be demolished. It
was sanitary, unsafe, and about to be officially back under
control of China as they were gearing up to get
(40:53):
all of Hong Kong back from Britain. But with thousands
of people living there, they had to get them out
without angering them, and so the government bought them out.
They gave them approximately eighty one thousand Hong Kong dollars,
which is about ten thousand American to thirty three thousand
(41:14):
different families so that they could start over somewhere else,
and when some families still refused to leave their home,
they were forcibly evicted. When the place was finally empty
in nineteen ninety three, a movie called Crime Story was
actually filmed there, and then on March twenty third, nineteen
(41:35):
ninety three, a wrecking ball was put to the once
thriving city. By April nineteen ninety four, Alicia and I
had been born and the city was no more. The
area is now called to me.
Speaker 1 (41:51):
Sad, even though it was all told violation, Like I
just yeah the history.
Speaker 2 (41:57):
Well, also, I don't remember what episode it was, or
if it was an episode, or if it was just
us talking, or if it was I don't even know.
I'm ninety nine percent sure it was you and I.
But there was a building that was abandoned, and we're like,
why would you just not let people experiencing homelessness live there?
This is why. This is what happens when you just
(42:19):
let people experiencing homelessness have at it there.
Speaker 1 (42:25):
Yeah, that's it terrifying.
Speaker 2 (42:27):
Yeah, but now the area is called Kowloon Walld City Park.
If you click on that link, there's a bunch of
beautiful photos that you can share with the screen if
you'd like. So, it's a structure. There is a structure
(42:48):
that remained from way back when it was a military fort.
It's called the Yamen. There's floral walks, a garden of
four seasons, a garden of Chinese zodiac, a chess going.
There's actual photos there we go. That's a a miniature
model of the ones thriving city. There's a chess garden
(43:12):
and pavilions and a mountain view, a water feature, all
kinds of really cute stuff now at Kowloon Walled City Park.
But at the same time, it's like, as beautiful as
this is, fifty thousand people lost their home, Like I
(43:32):
don't know, it's for this sweet Yeah, it's a bittersweet, like.
Speaker 3 (43:39):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (43:40):
But again, like health code violation, right, yeah, like that
feel that feels like we were moving back in time
by the nineteen nineties, Like.
Speaker 2 (43:48):
Yeah, yeah, it was. It was.
Speaker 1 (43:51):
It was a crazy thing.
Speaker 2 (43:53):
But that's the story behind the densest city to ever
exist on Earth that disappears. But that caloun Wold City.
Speaker 1 (44:03):
I was wondering why you've said disappeared in such a
weird way. I was like, why is she saying it
like that? But that was so good. I had never
heard of that, And I love the history and the
It's creepy, It's definitely, it is creepy. It's interesting place.
Speaker 2 (44:19):
For a while, there was a a like almost like
an escape room type place in Japan that was modeled
after calouon Wold City, like a whoa, like a whalehouse
fun place whatever. Yeah, and then there's also a couple
of video games on Call of Duty. There is a
(44:44):
what do they call it, like a chapter or like
a challenge or like a a level, a level where
you have to go through the caloun Wold City. There's
a couple of movies that are based off it. Cyberpunk
is very much based on the klun Wold City. And
there are a couple places. I can't remember if they
(45:09):
were in China or Japan, And I know that makes
me racist or something, I'm sure because I can't remember.
I know that there is an Asian country currently talking
about modeling an actual apartment complex city area after the
klun Wold City, except in a more mute and healthy
(45:31):
and rightly in a more structured and legal way. But
but because you know, basically it was like a little community.
Speaker 1 (45:42):
It's a part of it there you can do this. Yeah,
that's so interesting. Yeah, and honestly it looks like a
level and raft that me and Kevin played at one
point as well. Like it's yeah, it's very like And
maybe that's why it seems so familiar to me is
because of what you said about steampunk. Yea, because them
punk features are in like so many movies like, uh,
(46:06):
what was that robody kind of girl movie that came out?
Speaker 2 (46:12):
Robody kind of girl robot girl or she like roller
Blades Everywhere, Robot starts an a.
Speaker 1 (46:20):
Girl movie, Alida Battle Angel, Like it just gives like
those vibes. It's it's a really good movie. If you
haven't seen it, I have not, Yeah, clearly, but it
definitely gives like a futuristic kind of like scary in
(46:42):
some ways vibe because who knows that could be your future?
Speaker 2 (46:45):
Yeah, yeah, it does feel futuristic and at the same
time very old like historic, like like the.
Speaker 1 (46:55):
End of the World meets yeah, zombie Apocalypse meats like
it's it's so much also.
Speaker 2 (47:02):
Like again, like community, communal style living is coming back,
you know, it's it's in again, like the whole having
a commune or whatever, and that's kind of what that was.
Like they all helped each other, they all had everything
they needed right there. But let's not do it so dense,
(47:24):
like let's not do you don't go.
Speaker 1 (47:26):
See Gary Times seventeenth floor can help me out here? Yeah,
some batteries like make your way through however many square
feet no, thank you, it's weird. Yeah, that's so interesting.
I'm I've never heard of that.
Speaker 2 (47:44):
Yeah, I had never heard of it either. Jesse and
I was again watching Dommy Lee Arch whatever I said
her name was on YouTube and that popped up and
I was like, what is that? Yeah, and I was
I was like, covering this.
Speaker 1 (48:04):
Well perfect and I like that you fitted into disappeared that. Yeah.
I think this is just going to keep getting more
and more creative guys until the stretch is too far
that we're like, okay, enough's enough. Yeah, just cover whatever
the fuck you want. Yeah, but that was really good
and I'm very thankful that we don't live like that, because, oh,
(48:29):
I couldn't survive it. I could either take me out
of that place, though, take me somewhere that you want
to share that's happy, something happened, or interesting in a
not sardine can kind of way.
Speaker 2 (48:43):
Have you heard of a la boobu?
Speaker 1 (48:45):
No?
Speaker 2 (48:46):
Oh my god, So my child has recently. I don't know.
She's she's at her dad's house, okay, And when she's
at her dad's house, he only has to play down
once or twice a year or whatever, and so he
buys her whatever he wants because he doesn't have to
buy her stuff every single day of her life like
(49:06):
I do. Anyway, he spoils the shit out of her.
And on one hand, it's fine because she deserves it
because he's not doing it the rest of the year.
And on the other hand, I'm like, fuck, I'm gonna
have to fix my daughter when she gets back because
she's becoming an entitled, spoiled shit. But anyway, she is
(49:28):
into the trends right now, all of the trendy things
she's seeing on the internet, and her birthday's coming up,
so she wants all the trendy things. One of the
things she wants is called a la booboo, and a
la booboo is a little automny, a little tiny key
chain that looks like a monster baby wearing a Teddy
(49:54):
Bear costume, which, honestly, I think is super cool because
I'm me and a little tiny monster baby in a
Teddy Bear costume.
Speaker 1 (50:06):
I mean, yeah, but why is this the thing that,
like the way you describe it. I think of that
scene from Toy Story in the first movie where they
like get stuck in that neighbor kids yard and it's
just like a bunch of crime scene toys.
Speaker 2 (50:19):
Yeahho love boo boo. It looks like it's from where
the wild things are or something. Oh okay, la bubu,
Oh okay.
Speaker 1 (50:29):
Those are cute, but.
Speaker 2 (50:30):
Like, why is my cristy, little girly daughter like want one? Yeah,
I'm like, I'm sorry. For thirteen fucking years I've liked
creepy stuff, and now that it's trendy, you want that?
Are you fucking kidding? Like I'm the creepy one. You
always make fun of me for it, and now you
(50:51):
want it because it's trendy. Anyway, of course, she got
one from one of her grandparents. It's coming. It was
fifty fucking doll for a key ching, but it's coming.
Speaker 1 (51:04):
What the fuck that is not worth fifty dollars. That
looks like a cabbage patch kid and like a broken
toy had a baby. It's terrifying. Yeah, you could go
to a thrift store or an antique store and find
something just as creepy and authentic.
Speaker 2 (51:25):
But it's not trending.
Speaker 1 (51:27):
That's so fucking stupid. I hate kid.
Speaker 2 (51:30):
Yeah. So anyway, that's my my interesting tidbit for the day.
Speaker 1 (51:36):
My interesting tidbit is that thumber T Turd nine yesterday.
I need you to go and watch the video that
I posted on my story when we're done, because he's
so cute. He like took his little baked tree cake
and ran away with it.
Speaker 2 (51:53):
I can watch it right now.
Speaker 1 (51:55):
If it's still on there, it should be.
Speaker 2 (51:59):
He's like, bitch, leave me alone. I'm trying to enjoy
my food.
Speaker 1 (52:03):
Like literally just got it.
Speaker 2 (52:05):
It was like, bye, that's hilarious.
Speaker 1 (52:10):
Did you like my makeshift on the fly song?
Speaker 2 (52:13):
Yes, it was great.
Speaker 1 (52:17):
There's another video in there where he's actually just eating
it and cute, but he was happy, so he's nine,
which is crazy to me, and uh yeah, that's my
something happy. If you don't follow me, go and check
that out. I'll post it again because it was funny,
like he literally just like took it and ran and
(52:37):
it's bigger than his head. But we will see you
guys next week for my episode, which is gonna be creepy.
It's gonna be creepy. I'll tell you that. Creepy history
and creepy. Yeah, get ready for that. And in meantime,
keep it tisted, Twisted, Twisted, and Corked is hosted and
(53:01):
produced by Cierra Zorn and Alicia Watson. If you like
the show, don't forget to leave a five star rating
and review wherever you are listening now. It really is
the best way to spread the word. You can check
out all things Twisted on our website twisted at uncork
dot com, and we will see you next Tuesday for
a brand new episode.
Hello, twisted humans.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Do you find yourself wanting to know more about the
latest murder, conspiracy, cult, or haunting.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Than this is the podcast for you.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
I'm Alicia and I'm Sierra, and this is Twisted and Uncorked.
You are listening to episode two oh four of Twisted
and Uncorked, and today I have something what is it?
Speaker 1 (00:28):
No longer their favorite podcast?
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Oh, I'm just trying new Ever since two hundred, I've
been trying new intros a lot of time. Either I
don't think maybe, no, no, you did.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
You definitely did. But my episode last week I said
two zero three and you were instantly offended. So I guess
that was new.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Yeah. Yeah, the zero was too much for me. I
have something a little different for you all today. Remember
last week and I told you a fun fact about
the moon, and I said, I learned it from some
girl I've been watching on YouTube. That girl's YouTube channel
is Dommy Lee Arch and she's also how I found
(01:12):
the disappeared thing I'm gonna tell you about today. But
speaking of fun facts, do you have one for me?
Speaker 1 (01:20):
I do, and it is just simply penguin mouths.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
Oh god, what about them?
Speaker 1 (01:30):
Have you ever seen a penguin's mouth.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
I guess not.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
It's the scariest thing in the world.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Oh, actually, yes, I have. It has like backwards teeth. Yeah, yeah,
who knew that away penguins like secretly from the upside down?
Who knew that they were all cute and cuddily on
the outside. I saw a video the other day. They
have like, I.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
Shit, you not like seventy teeth just crammed in there. Yea,
and it looks like shark teeth. There's layers.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
Yeah, it looks like it doesn't it like help them
gobble down fish.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
Fish something.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
But it's pretty weird.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Like, yeah, I just need you to google penguin mouth.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
Oh, I've seen it before and I don't want to
see it again.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
I need you for the people. Oh I need to
know you're a real reaction because I saw one for
the first time like two days ago, and I will
never look at a penguin the same way.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
Hey, I got to pet a pangin one time. No,
it's awesome.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
Well it's good. Think I didn't try and bite your
hand fuck.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
It off, because oh it is. It's like their tongue
are teeth, their roof of their mouth our teeth. Everything
is teeth. Everything is teeth.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
Looks like little razor blades going down everywhere.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
Everywhere.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
It's the thing that nightmares are made out of. And
I don't like it at all. It's it's giving penny wise. Yeah,
that's what it's doing with his teeth. No, so that's
my fun cut. It's that I learned that a few
days ago, and I needed to ruin penguins for more people. Yeah,
(03:15):
snails weirdly have similar mouths to penguins with all the teeth. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
Oh, I found a snail fun fact, but it's not
today's fun fact, so I can't tell you.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
Is that most people kill snails like you did a
few years ago and just ruined like that. Do you
know how many people look at me like I'm crazy
because I'm like, you should never move a snail, you're
probably killing it. And they're like well, And then I
tell them why and they're like, why do you know
(03:48):
so much about snail? Why?
Speaker 2 (03:51):
I do?
Speaker 1 (03:53):
And every time I move my sea snails, I think
of this. But snee snails, as it turns out, are
similar but different to land snails, and that they're more movable,
like if you just like wiggle their shell back and
forth a couple of times. They'll like button section and
then you can move them. Well, they like to crawl
(04:17):
back into the filter reservoir of my tank, and it's
not safe for them back there, so I get to
play the game of taking apart the back of my
tank and scooping them out on like a semi regular basis.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
Fun times.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
Yeah, I bought snails to help my fish, and then
my fish died, so now I'm just stuck with three
little snails and I like them. I mean I did
name them after the Jonas brothers, so Kevin calls them Larry,
Curll and Mo. So we like. And you saw the
video of their creepy little mounts. I'm sorry we've officially
(04:57):
gone to a different level of podcast and clearly I'm
fixated on certain things. What is your fun fact?
Speaker 2 (05:04):
Well, my fun fact is that the baseball team, the
Atlanta Braves, used to be located in Boston. They also
had many other names before they eventually became the Atlanta Braves.
Originally they were called the Boston bean Eaters. The reason
(05:27):
is because a Boston cannery was the first to invent
a can that preserved baked beans for armies and whatnot
to take with them and eat on the go the
Boston bean eaters.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
I love that fun fact, and somehow I feel like
that fun fact is related to your case. It's not
even the drink recipes that I received. No, it's not,
but oh shit, look at her.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
Yeah, this episode as well with a drink that is
called red bean ice. Red bean ice is a popular
dessert drink in Hong Kong and is made by cooking
red beans with rock sugar until they're soft and creamy,
then adding ice.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
A bit of coconut milk, and a.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
Good amount of evaporated milk. Some places add a scoop
of ice cream on top, add booze if you choose.
I would assume Bailey's or some other cream style liquor
would go best here. Did you make this drink?
Speaker 1 (06:32):
I did, but I just made it as is, and
I had a glass of wine before we were recorded.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
Have you tried it?
Speaker 1 (06:40):
I have, and I actually really like it. I didn't
think that I was gonna like it. It gives me
the same vibe that my Grandma's rice pudding gives me,
like something that shouldn't be sweet and this kind of
weird mixed together kind of works a little bit.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
Yeah. I don't like nutty funks in the bottom of my.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
Straw though, so hence why I chose to drink it
without a straw. I also chose to put it in
my witch Is Brew cup because it is covered and
no one needs to see that it looks like somebody
ship in the bottom of my glass. Sierra is again
somehow looks better.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
Yeah, definitely better. You don't like it, Oh, it's yeah,
I don't like it.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
It's weird, weird, like I would never drink it all
the time, but I like it as a one off experience.
Sierra sent me two drink recipes, yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
My backup drink. Well, when I saw that this was
a popular drink in Hong Kong, I just had to
try it for this episode because when on earth would
I ever try when beans in a drink?
Speaker 1 (07:49):
Right, But the funniest part is I told Kevin to
boil beans for me today in the croc pod because
I texted you at ten thirty forgetting that you had
sent it to me a few days and then I
looked and I was like, oh, fuck, not home. So
I was like, Kevin, can you take the can of
red beans in the cupboard and cruck up it's sugar.
(08:11):
Oh my gosh. I mean he's like, I'm just gonna
send you the screenshot of our text message because it's
just so funny. He's like, what the fuck are you
guys drinking tonight? And then when I told him what
it was, he was interested in it because he really
likes Asian cultures, but he didn't end up trying it
because he's lame anyways. Round two was a little more whitewashed.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
Yeah, my backup drink is because I know some people
might not like that. Also, beans take time to cook,
so maybe you don't want to waste your time cooking beans.
This is Hong Kong style milk tea, which became popular
around the nineteen fifties when Britain controlled Hong Kong. It
was influenced by British tea culture and is made with
(08:58):
black tea altered through cloth sacks, topped with about as
much evaporated or condensed milk to give it a very
silky mouthfeel.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
It's fine.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
I mean I can taste that it's English black tea
and evaporated milk, like that's all.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
It tastes like to me, so, oh, you did both
of them. I'm obsessed that you did both of them. Okay,
I only did the one, and it's too sweet for me,
and I don't know, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
It is nutty, and it is kind of nutty yet
I evaporated.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
Milk just always tastes too sweet to me, like even
without adding sugar to it, you know what I mean. Yeah,
it's like a crime scene in my glass.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
It's it's interesting, for sure. I'm probably gonna be drinking
a lot of water this episode.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
Yeah, Sarah, every time you know what in I'm pouring,
I want wine for myself because I don't think I'm
gonna be able to get very far with how sweeteness.
But I will say that out of two hundred and
four episodes, we've had some bangers. So it's about time
(10:17):
that we get a yeah drink.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
Yeah, I mean, listen, if you are in Hong Kong,
I bet you're like, fuck, yeah, our drink is finally
being you know, broad showcased. What do you call it?
You know whatever, pasted? Yeah, I'm broadcasting broad Show nineteen fifty. Anyway,
(10:43):
the drinks are interesting. I'm glad I tried them. I
would might try them if I actually visited Hong Kong,
because they probably make it better than me. But also
it's cool that I now know how to make this.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
I agree.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
All right, So now that we've got those out of
the way, we are going to take a quick break
to hear a proomo from Believing the Bizarre. Hey, what's up.
Speaker 3 (11:09):
I'm Charlie and I'm Tyler, and we are Believing the Bizarre,
a paranormal podcast that dives into the unknown and unusual.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
Every Tuesday. We discuss hauntings, cryptids, aliens, uophone counters, conspiracies,
and more.
Speaker 3 (11:22):
And we break down whether or not we find them believable.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
All right, listen, if you're not paying for electricity, you're
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Speaker 3 (11:29):
Saw a terrifying looking face pressed to the window with
gaping eyes. Must reach it when the laughter stops suddenly
and a sound behind me made me turn around like sorry,
Like I was gonna do it, but then I got
I had SpaceX.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
So we got you covered.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
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Speaker 1 (11:55):
We even take creepy stories from our listeners and turn
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Speaker 3 (12:00):
Check out Believing the Bizarre on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or
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Speaker 2 (12:05):
Believing the Bizarre a podcast as bizarre as you are.
All right, let's get into this week's episode, about a
place near Hong Kong that no longer exists. So this
episode requires quite a bit of history, and we all
know that I don't love history, so I'm going to
try to do my best to dumb it all down,
(12:26):
get through it quickly, focus on the fun parts, and
get straight to the interesting bits. But first, there's this
China has been through a lot of shit, and actually
pretty recently, one of those shit things was a war
with Britain in which Britain was kind of super shitty
for China and Britain were trading things, but Britain didn't
(12:47):
have anything that China wanted, so they would ask for
money for their goods instead of the bartering system. Britain
hated that, and they did actually have one thing that
some people in China wanted, opium, which, if you don't know,
is basically heroin. This drug was legal in Britain at
the time. We're talking eighteen hundreds. However, even China, no, sorry,
(13:14):
it was legal in Britain at the time, even though
they knew it was highly addictive because it's still made money.
But China was already on their way to cleaning up
the streets of this drug. They were like, no, we're
not doing all that. They saw what it did to
their people and refused to allow Britain to bring it in.
Britain didn't really seem to care about those laws and
would ship it anyway. But when it was caught once,
(13:37):
the Chinese government burned the entire shipment. This pissed off Britain,
who was stronger than China at the time, and so
they used this destruction of their goods as an excuse
to invade China and take over their territories. In an
attempt to stop the fighting, a treating was a A
(13:58):
treaty was signed in which China had to pay a
big find to Britain, give them the island of Hong
Kong for ninety nine years, and allowed them to have
more trade ports, so they lost just a few years later.
Britain seemed to think that they didn't have quite enough
(14:18):
control over China, and so they invaded again. This time
was with the help of France. Britain's excuse was that
a Chinese officer went aboard a British ship to arrest
Chinese citizens for whatever rebellion related crimes they were committing,
and Britain said that the Chinese official lowered the British
flag while on the ship, so sure, let's war about it.
(14:43):
France decided to join in because the Chinese had executed
a French missionary for trying to spread Christianity, which is
a little more understandable of a reason to war. I guess, like,
don't kill innocent people anyway. So this time again China lost,
and so they had to give up even more trade ports.
(15:05):
They legalized the importation of opium sadly, They gave freedom
for Christian missionaries to move freely through their land. They
provided residents for foreign envoys in Beijing, and they gave
Britain control of the southern portion of the Kowloon Peninsula,
which brings us to the heart of this episode. Kowloon
(15:29):
is a city located north of Hong Kong Island and
is considered the mainland portion of the Hong Kong region.
Kowloon means nine dragons and was given this name by
the last emperor of the Song dynasty, Xiao Bing. He
was only six years old when he became emperor, and
(15:52):
unfortunately he died less than a year later. But in
his rule, he fled to this area to try and
surve being targeted by other troops. He saw that there
were eight mountains surrounding the Kowloon area and said it
looked like eight dragons. But emperors were often compared to dragons,
(16:14):
and so one of the older men in the little
Emperor's entourage heard him say bat long, meaning eight dragons,
and corrected him saying, no, nine dragons or gaolong, which
eventually was English to kowloon. Is that kind of adorable?
Speaker 1 (16:33):
That that's super cool? I know? And given that I
am currently reading the fourth Wing series, Yeah to dragon,
perfect timing. The minute you mentioned dragons, I'm like, oh, okay.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
Well, unfortunately that's all about dragons. When Britain got control
of the southern portion of Kowloon, China was still allowed
control of their military fort located there, called the Kowloon
Wald City. It was called this because as a military fort,
it was walled in. About seven hundred people lived there
(17:09):
at the time, in nineteen eighty nine. No, eighteen eighty nine,
that's right, yeah, eighteen eighty nine.
Speaker 1 (17:18):
Sorry, they're like, I beg your finest pardon that I wrote.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
That wrong in eighteen eighty nine. But Britain didn't like
not having control, and at one point they sent troops
in to spy on the people inside. However, even with
China technically being in charge of this walled city, the
people there didn't really want to live in the area
(17:42):
surrounded by British control, so most people had already moved
out anyway. There were only about one hundred and fifty
people there at that time. So I have sent you
a document with a bunch of photos. If you pull
up that document, the first thing you're going to see
is through photos and then a big blank space. Do
(18:03):
not go past the blank space, but if you can
share that the first I think three maybe two. The
first couple of photos show the fortress that was the
military Kowloon Walled City. Yes, so the first picture is
what it looks like if you're standing, you know, outside,
(18:24):
looking at it. If you go down you can see
the wall that kind of yeah, just a wall go down,
just a tiny bit. Okay, Yeah, so that's what from
an aerial view, that's what it looks like. It's walled
in and there's just a couple of buildings there. Okay,
all right, so a few years later we'll go back
(18:44):
to that in a little bit. Okay, a few years
later in nineteen twelve, the Qing dynasty and did its
rule over China, of whom the fort belonged to, so
it became a bit confusing. Who owns it next? British
Hong Kong, I'm sorry, British Hall Hong Kong or the
new Nationalist China, because technically China owned it, but it
(19:06):
was Ching dynasty China that owned it. Now Qing dynasty
has been given to nationalists China or I guess taken
by nationalist China. So anyway, neither of them took care
of it. What happened? Did you get a bean?
Speaker 1 (19:20):
I did I apologize for that noise amidst spira sentence there, guys,
because it dt to mute myself and that was real gross.
It's it is a choking hazard, and you might I
(19:43):
don't know if there's a good way to drink it
with a straw, you get chunks. When you don't drink
it with a straw, you get.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
Beans in the well. Like I said, in the Hong
Kong they put ice cream on top, so I think
they just eat it with a spoon, beans and all.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
Yeah, I feel like doing it wrong. You got it.
Next time we try this, if ever, we will put
ice cream on it.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
Yeah, that'll be fun. So neither took care of it.
Kowloon Wall City was starting to fall apart. It was
labeled Chinatown on a British map and people would go
stare at it like a little piece of history. Around
four hundred squatters were living in the abandoned buildings on
the six point four acre area, and right around the
(20:29):
time that Hong Kong wanted to demolish it, in China
started saying no, that's actually ours. Another war broke out,
this time between China and Japan. During the Warring Times.
The walls were taken down from the walled city to
be used as a sea wall by Japan, and an
(20:49):
airport called Kai Tak was built and then expanded on
directly next to the Kowloon Walled City in Wald City
that's not any more Wald, The Wald City, as it's
still known itself, was mostly in shambles. People fleeing from
(21:11):
war torn towns, or people who just didn't agree with
the politics of the war, or people who were experiencing
homelessness because of the war, or opium addictions or whatever
would go to this small six point four acres of
land where no one seemed to care what was happening.
The four hundred squatters quickly became two thousand. But the
(21:35):
wars didn't stop insert World War two, and people didn't
stop fleeing, and China didn't want to fuss about this
territory during the rest of the war, and British Hong
Kong already kind of had control over it, being in
the middle of Hong Kong Region, which they controlled, so
everyone in power thought it would be best to just
not touch the place. Don't touch it, don't look at it.
(21:56):
It's not worth a bigger fight. Just let it deteriorate.
But it wasn't exactly deteriorating. Actually it was growing. The
six point four acre area couldn't grow right the area
itself because only this specific plot of land was what
was ungoverned. So the people fleeing to this area looking
(22:20):
for somewhere to live. Built on every single inch of
the six point four acres. Sorry, did you get it?
Speaker 1 (22:35):
No? And it's maddening me.
Speaker 2 (22:42):
The homes, which were more like wooden shacks, were touching
each other, they were so close. But then in nineteen
fifty a fire came through and ruined many of the
homes of the now more than five thousand residents. And
let me double check breaking the photos that I sent you,
(23:04):
because I think there's another photo that I forgot to
send you in the next group. So this is the
seven hundred on the left is what it looked like
originally in nineteen fifty when the fire went through. This
is what it had been built to. People were putting
little wooden shacks everywhere, like every square inch of that
(23:25):
land was being filled. Are you able to zoom in?
Speaker 1 (23:30):
Let me see?
Speaker 2 (23:37):
Yeah, there we go. So if you go up just
a tiny bit, it says these dots, each point is
an inhabitant. So if that's so crazy, right, Like it's
showing the density of the area. So in nineteen fifty,
there's five thousand people in that tiny six point four acres,
(24:00):
that's how dense it is. But then there's a fire. Okay,
so I continue. But that didn't stop the current residence
or new residents from living in the six point four
acres of ungoverned land. In fact, it gave them an
excuse to build it better, better in terms of still
(24:21):
unregulated though, and as the population continued to grow and
land was running out, people began to build up, until
eventually Kowloon Walled City looked like one giant apartment complex
from afar and like a sci fi movie up close.
(24:43):
It eventually consisted of quote three hundred and fifty buildings,
almost all between ten and fourteen stories high, occupied by
eighty five hundred premises, ten thousand, seven hundred households, and
more than thirty three thousand residents.
Speaker 1 (25:02):
End quote, I beg the garden.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
The building heights stopped at ten or fourteen because the
Kai Tech airport was so close that the planes would
literally run into the building if they went any higher,
like constant noise all day long, airport noise literally flying
right over top of you. Numbers today looking back say
(25:27):
that at its peak, there were fifty thousand people living
on this six point four acre property. There is a
twelve acre property behind my house, and I can't imagine
fifty thousand people there, let alone half that space. But
let me explain the situation in caloun Wald City. People
(25:51):
coming to live in the ungoverned kloun Wold City had
jobs before they fled to the area. Building developers, restauranters, doctors, dentists, bakers, teachers.
The building developers came in and helped build the buildings
up and on top of each building, literally on top
of each other. The electricians helped wire the place from
(26:17):
the few electricity ports that had already existed, not with
new ones, because this is an ungoverned area with all
wires on the outside of the building, so that they
weren't risking another fire. The entrepreneurs turned the bottom buildings
with the most reliable electricity into little stores and shops
(26:41):
to provide people there with necessities as well as to
make money. But again not governed, so there's no one
to ensure they're following building codes or doing things safely.
There's not even any real police. There's actually a crime syndicate.
The triads who were kind of controlling the place, not
(27:04):
to the point that everyone there was involved, but ensuring
things were running smoothly. For example, if an addict wanted
their fix from a dealer, the dealer would make sure
that the addict went and collected trash from the crimes
to do get homes and businesses first, and by businesses
I mean brothels and gambling dens, and also pharmacies because
(27:28):
sometimes Chinese or Hong Kong police would walk by the
walled city on the street just to check on people,
and if they found drugs on these people, then the
police would get suspicious and have a reason to come in.
So the drug dealers would literally shoot up or have
the addicts smoke or take the drugs in their quote
unquote pharmacy. You can only take drugs here, you cannot
(27:51):
buy drugs here.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
Wild concept, but all right.
Speaker 2 (27:56):
And this pharmacy wasn't the only weirdly operated business. There
was no better business bureau checking that everything everyone was
doing everything they were supposed to do. The many doctors
and dentists had no licenses or degrees, and while the
people who lived in the walled city used these services
as a necessity, people not from this area would come
(28:19):
and frequent these businesses also in order to get better prices.
It's a really cheap dentist might as well go to
the really cheap dentist. There were hundreds of tiny factories
that produced things like metal or plastic or golf balls
or whatever. They could make money from movie theaters, adult
movie theaters, a strip club, some communal bathrooms, and so
(28:44):
many little shops. Some of the stores that existed were
literally butcher shops that sold dog meat. They openly sold
dog meat really cheap to other restaurants so they could
save money. But then that put the restaurants in Kowloon
Walled City in a bad spot because people coming to
(29:05):
eat there thought that the restaurant must get their meat
from the dog place. So cook started butchering animals right
in front of the customer. If you ordered chicken, they'd
bring out the live chicken and kill it so you
could have a peace of mind that it was chicken
and not dog.
Speaker 1 (29:24):
That is one approach to solving stereotype.
Speaker 2 (29:29):
You want chicken, look chicken.
Speaker 1 (29:32):
M okay, I no longer want the chicken so much.
I'm actually gonna leave now. I don't like. What would
you do if that happened to you? Traumatized? Yeah that's
the I know how much you love chickens. Yeah, no,
one needs to see that.
Speaker 2 (29:53):
Aside from the weird businesses, there were community style places
here as well. There were multiple schools, there were churches.
There were rooftops where children's children played together. But also
on the roofs, people from higher floors took their trash
there because it was easier than climbing all the way down.
Some people just threw their trash out the window, but
(30:16):
not everyone had a window. Also, most of the wiring
didn't reach all the way to the top floors, so
they didn't have electricity and would use the rooftops for
drying their clothes or whatever else they needed the sunlight
and heat. This is going to be yeah, go ahead
and pull up those photos again. We are going to
(30:41):
We're going to get a view of the rooftops after
I show you the new congestion. So remember I said
the inhabitants, right, this is on the left there you muted, well,
(31:01):
I said, quick before Yeah, And it is grown grown
to this fifty thousand inhabitants. It is literally the most
dense place to ever exist. If you scroll down again
just a little, you can see all of them together.
(31:24):
There you go, Oh, this is how it how it grew.
Speaker 1 (31:30):
Why do I feel like this is our future.
Speaker 2 (31:33):
M and then go down another one and this is
what it looks like. Those are the little rooftops. If
you scroll one more you'll see an up close of
the rooftops where children literally played what Yeah, so keep
(31:58):
it in mind.
Speaker 1 (31:58):
Looks like a bar buildings got put in one of
those car press Yeah crushers, that's what that looks like. Yeah, Like,
how do you even get to what happens if you
live here?
Speaker 2 (32:11):
Oh, we'll talk about that in a little bit. Let
me continue.
Speaker 1 (32:15):
Oh my god.
Speaker 2 (32:18):
So there were only eight water sources down on the
bottom of the city, so some people took the opportunity
to lug water from the bottom to the upper areas
for a price. And these upper areas weren't just upstairs
and down hallway. There weren't many hallways. There were so
many people that nearly every inch was used for livable space.
(32:41):
Each person got about forty square foot of space to themselves,
although to themselves is kind of an understatement. Sometimes to
get to your own living space, you'd have to go
forty square feet, yes, for thirty five dollars a month.
Speaker 1 (32:58):
I'm pretty sure my desk surface area is forty square feet. Wait,
hold on, Maybe I don't know how big forty square
feet is, but that seems really small.
Speaker 2 (33:14):
Yeah, forty square feet is like a closet.
Speaker 1 (33:18):
Square foot two. Yeah, it's like a closet, like a pantry,
like a small closet, like an entry closet, not a
walk in closet.
Speaker 2 (33:29):
Let's clear, right, right, Jesus, this is like a closet
smaller than Harry Potter lived in.
Speaker 1 (33:36):
Okay, I'm claustrophobic already, just with the images I've seen,
I would not survive here. Oh you just wait.
Speaker 2 (33:46):
Sometimes you had to go up one way. Sorry, Sometimes
you had to to get to your own living space,
you had to go through someone else's living space. Sometimes
you had to go up one way to get to
a lower floor a block way. There were even routes
you could take to go all the way around the
six point four acres without ever touching the ground outside
(34:08):
or seeing sunlight. Going through homes to get to homes
wasn't always a bad thing, though. People here were very much,
very close.
Speaker 1 (34:20):
I don't really have a Choy family. I'm so sorry.
I'm so mad that this exists.
Speaker 2 (34:27):
For example, older women would watch the children of younger women,
so the young women could get chores done while their
husbands were away working. People helped each other all throughout
the Kowloon walled city structure, but traveling through the building
was a bit dangerous and quite gross. Like I said,
people were often throwing their trash out of windows, and
(34:49):
also there were attics and gangs here, so sometimes you'd
come across a dead person kind of just lying in
a walkway until someone moved the body to honestly, who
knows where. When people walked through the walkways, which they
called catwalks, which were only three to six feet wide,
(35:09):
by the way, they would carry umbrellas because there was
a persistent dripping of who knows what. So there are
a lot more photos, and I know this is a
mostly audio podcast, but I really want you to see
them because they are just so interesting.
Speaker 1 (35:29):
And if you're refused, come follow us on social media
where you can see those photos.
Speaker 2 (35:36):
Before we get to this place disappearing, we're gonna go
through all of the photos together. You can pull those up.
Speaker 3 (35:45):
There.
Speaker 2 (35:46):
Wun No, some of them are fun, I guess, all right,
So we start zoomed out. This is the outermost zoom
of this place. You can see all around it. You know,
it's Kowloon City is a city, but Kowloon Walled City
was ungoverned. So the walled city is the really tall one.
(36:06):
Everything around it is just you know, Kloon City regular.
Speaker 1 (36:10):
Okay, yeah, all right, scrolled down myself by accident.
Speaker 2 (36:16):
This is the side view of it. If you scroll down,
I think there's a zoom in of the side view.
Oh so this is then. Most of the buildings are
made of concrete. They just you know, kind of put
up these metal slat thingies and poured concrete down until
it filled up. And that's how they built their walls. What. Yeah,
(36:44):
that is a zoomed in really close version of somebody's balcony.
All like the balconies were you know, screened in because dangerous.
Yeah wow, this is from down on the streets, the
bottoms were, where the shops were.
Speaker 1 (37:03):
It looks like each one of these little oophs are
somebody's living area.
Speaker 2 (37:11):
Yeah, oh my god, it's crazy. And then okay, so
this is do you see that little tiny picture there
and how there's a little red square. So they cut
out a portion of that photo and zoomed in.
Speaker 1 (37:26):
Really, oh my god, you can see there's kids playing.
Speaker 2 (37:33):
You can see on the right side that it shows
you like there's a little school over there. If you
go down the red rooms.
Speaker 1 (37:41):
Or brothel looks like a war's waldo. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (37:45):
Right to the right of the brothel is where the
the catwalk is. That's the only like stairs in the
whole place. You have to like maneuver your way through there,
and then there's no hallways, so to get to the
right side for insan and you'd have to go up
the catwalk and then goes through everybody's house all the
way to the right.
Speaker 1 (38:06):
Like I have no work. It's fucking crazy, Like I
feel like I experience a level of privilege now that
I'm willing to tea.
Speaker 2 (38:14):
It's like a fucking video game, like levels of hell.
Speaker 1 (38:20):
I don't know. Yeah, it's like, yeah, it's like a
it's like a bad video game.
Speaker 2 (38:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (38:28):
Mix though.
Speaker 2 (38:30):
So this is the mailman who is delivering the mail
at this place. Only some people got mail because originally
there were only a couple of buildings, so there's not
very many there's not very many mail boxes, but somehow
the mailman knew how to get to the ones that
he could. That's the catwalk that's how dirty it is.
You can see there's like pipes and wires hanging above
(38:50):
his head.
Speaker 1 (38:51):
It's like underground, like New York City.
Speaker 2 (38:55):
Like. Yes, the next picture is another photo of the
inside inside one of the catwalks. That's why people wore
umbrellas or used umbrellas because it's like wet all the time.
Just again another one, guys, I would not survive this,
(39:17):
I think is Oh, yeah, so that's aimed up at
like that's where people would throw their trash out the windows,
and so it's just like hanging on the wires and
ship because there's wires everywhere.
Speaker 1 (39:31):
It would smell so bad, so bad, like a dead body,
and they're literally.
Speaker 2 (39:38):
Selling dog meat in there too, like like butchering animals,
like right in there. Yeah, it would smell gross.
Speaker 1 (39:47):
It would smell like But then you go down.
Speaker 2 (39:51):
And that picture kind of looks really cool, like I
would visit that. I go down again, normal busy city.
Now it looks kind of almost beautiful, right, yeah, like
it's a context at night. Yeah, and school to the
last one, that's an awesome photo. Yeah, like it just
(40:16):
looks it looks like the coolest apartment you could ever
live in. But little did you know inside is fucking
house of horrors, a healthscape.
Speaker 1 (40:26):
Yeah, oh my god.
Speaker 2 (40:29):
Yeah. So we're gonna get to that link here in
a minute, but let me continue in eight. Sorry, no,
we're to the nineteenth now. In nineteen eighty seven, it
was announced that the place needed to be demolished. It
was sanitary, unsafe, and about to be officially back under
control of China as they were gearing up to get
(40:53):
all of Hong Kong back from Britain. But with thousands
of people living there, they had to get them out
without angering them, and so the government bought them out.
They gave them approximately eighty one thousand Hong Kong dollars,
which is about ten thousand American to thirty three thousand
(41:14):
different families so that they could start over somewhere else,
and when some families still refused to leave their home,
they were forcibly evicted. When the place was finally empty
in nineteen ninety three, a movie called Crime Story was
actually filmed there, and then on March twenty third, nineteen
(41:35):
ninety three, a wrecking ball was put to the once
thriving city. By April nineteen ninety four, Alicia and I
had been born and the city was no more. The
area is now called to me.
Speaker 1 (41:51):
Sad, even though it was all told violation, Like I
just yeah the history.
Speaker 2 (41:57):
Well, also, I don't remember what episode it was, or
if it was an episode, or if it was just
us talking, or if it was I don't even know.
I'm ninety nine percent sure it was you and I.
But there was a building that was abandoned, and we're like,
why would you just not let people experiencing homelessness live there?
This is why. This is what happens when you just
(42:19):
let people experiencing homelessness have at it there.
Speaker 1 (42:25):
Yeah, that's it terrifying.
Speaker 2 (42:27):
Yeah, but now the area is called Kowloon Walld City Park.
If you click on that link, there's a bunch of
beautiful photos that you can share with the screen if
you'd like. So, it's a structure. There is a structure
(42:48):
that remained from way back when it was a military fort.
It's called the Yamen. There's floral walks, a garden of
four seasons, a garden of Chinese zodiac, a chess going.
There's actual photos there we go. That's a a miniature
model of the ones thriving city. There's a chess garden
(43:12):
and pavilions and a mountain view, a water feature, all
kinds of really cute stuff now at Kowloon Walled City Park.
But at the same time, it's like, as beautiful as
this is, fifty thousand people lost their home, Like I
(43:32):
don't know, it's for this sweet Yeah, it's a bittersweet, like.
Speaker 3 (43:39):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (43:40):
But again, like health code violation, right, yeah, like that
feel that feels like we were moving back in time
by the nineteen nineties, Like.
Speaker 2 (43:48):
Yeah, yeah, it was. It was.
Speaker 1 (43:51):
It was a crazy thing.
Speaker 2 (43:53):
But that's the story behind the densest city to ever
exist on Earth that disappears. But that caloun Wold City.
Speaker 1 (44:03):
I was wondering why you've said disappeared in such a
weird way. I was like, why is she saying it
like that? But that was so good. I had never
heard of that, And I love the history and the
It's creepy, It's definitely, it is creepy. It's interesting place.
Speaker 2 (44:19):
For a while, there was a a like almost like
an escape room type place in Japan that was modeled
after calouon Wold City, like a whoa, like a whalehouse
fun place whatever. Yeah, and then there's also a couple
of video games on Call of Duty. There is a
(44:44):
what do they call it, like a chapter or like
a challenge or like a a level, a level where
you have to go through the caloun Wold City. There's
a couple of movies that are based off it. Cyberpunk
is very much based on the klun Wold City. And
there are a couple places. I can't remember if they
(45:09):
were in China or Japan, And I know that makes
me racist or something, I'm sure because I can't remember.
I know that there is an Asian country currently talking
about modeling an actual apartment complex city area after the
klun Wold City, except in a more mute and healthy
(45:31):
and rightly in a more structured and legal way. But
but because you know, basically it was like a little community.
Speaker 1 (45:42):
It's a part of it there you can do this. Yeah,
that's so interesting. Yeah, and honestly it looks like a
level and raft that me and Kevin played at one
point as well. Like it's yeah, it's very like And
maybe that's why it seems so familiar to me is
because of what you said about steampunk. Yea, because them
punk features are in like so many movies like, uh,
(46:06):
what was that robody kind of girl movie that came out?
Speaker 2 (46:12):
Robody kind of girl robot girl or she like roller
Blades Everywhere, Robot starts an a.
Speaker 1 (46:20):
Girl movie, Alida Battle Angel, Like it just gives like
those vibes. It's it's a really good movie. If you
haven't seen it, I have not, Yeah, clearly, but it
definitely gives like a futuristic kind of like scary in
(46:42):
some ways vibe because who knows that could be your future?
Speaker 2 (46:45):
Yeah, yeah, it does feel futuristic and at the same
time very old like historic, like like the.
Speaker 1 (46:55):
End of the World meets yeah, zombie Apocalypse meats like
it's it's so much also.
Speaker 2 (47:02):
Like again, like community, communal style living is coming back,
you know, it's it's in again, like the whole having
a commune or whatever, and that's kind of what that was.
Like they all helped each other, they all had everything
they needed right there. But let's not do it so dense,
(47:24):
like let's not do you don't go.
Speaker 1 (47:26):
See Gary Times seventeenth floor can help me out here? Yeah,
some batteries like make your way through however many square
feet no, thank you, it's weird. Yeah, that's so interesting.
I'm I've never heard of that.
Speaker 2 (47:44):
Yeah, I had never heard of it either. Jesse and
I was again watching Dommy Lee Arch whatever I said
her name was on YouTube and that popped up and
I was like, what is that? Yeah, and I was
I was like, covering this.
Speaker 1 (48:04):
Well perfect and I like that you fitted into disappeared that. Yeah.
I think this is just going to keep getting more
and more creative guys until the stretch is too far
that we're like, okay, enough's enough. Yeah, just cover whatever
the fuck you want. Yeah, but that was really good
and I'm very thankful that we don't live like that, because, oh,
(48:29):
I couldn't survive it. I could either take me out
of that place, though, take me somewhere that you want
to share that's happy, something happened, or interesting in a
not sardine can kind of way.
Speaker 2 (48:43):
Have you heard of a la boobu?
Speaker 1 (48:45):
No?
Speaker 2 (48:46):
Oh my god, So my child has recently. I don't know.
She's she's at her dad's house, okay, And when she's
at her dad's house, he only has to play down
once or twice a year or whatever, and so he
buys her whatever he wants because he doesn't have to
buy her stuff every single day of her life like
(49:06):
I do. Anyway, he spoils the shit out of her.
And on one hand, it's fine because she deserves it
because he's not doing it the rest of the year.
And on the other hand, I'm like, fuck, I'm gonna
have to fix my daughter when she gets back because
she's becoming an entitled, spoiled shit. But anyway, she is
(49:28):
into the trends right now, all of the trendy things
she's seeing on the internet, and her birthday's coming up,
so she wants all the trendy things. One of the
things she wants is called a la booboo, and a
la booboo is a little automny, a little tiny key
chain that looks like a monster baby wearing a Teddy
(49:54):
Bear costume, which, honestly, I think is super cool because
I'm me and a little tiny monster baby in a
Teddy Bear costume.
Speaker 1 (50:06):
I mean, yeah, but why is this the thing that,
like the way you describe it. I think of that
scene from Toy Story in the first movie where they
like get stuck in that neighbor kids yard and it's
just like a bunch of crime scene toys.
Speaker 2 (50:19):
Yeahho love boo boo. It looks like it's from where
the wild things are or something. Oh okay, la bubu,
Oh okay.
Speaker 1 (50:29):
Those are cute, but.
Speaker 2 (50:30):
Like, why is my cristy, little girly daughter like want one? Yeah,
I'm like, I'm sorry. For thirteen fucking years I've liked
creepy stuff, and now that it's trendy, you want that?
Are you fucking kidding? Like I'm the creepy one. You
always make fun of me for it, and now you
(50:51):
want it because it's trendy. Anyway, of course, she got
one from one of her grandparents. It's coming. It was
fifty fucking doll for a key ching, but it's coming.
Speaker 1 (51:04):
What the fuck that is not worth fifty dollars. That
looks like a cabbage patch kid and like a broken
toy had a baby. It's terrifying. Yeah, you could go
to a thrift store or an antique store and find
something just as creepy and authentic.
Speaker 2 (51:25):
But it's not trending.
Speaker 1 (51:27):
That's so fucking stupid. I hate kid.
Speaker 2 (51:30):
Yeah. So anyway, that's my my interesting tidbit for the day.
Speaker 1 (51:36):
My interesting tidbit is that thumber T Turd nine yesterday.
I need you to go and watch the video that
I posted on my story when we're done, because he's
so cute. He like took his little baked tree cake
and ran away with it.
Speaker 2 (51:53):
I can watch it right now.
Speaker 1 (51:55):
If it's still on there, it should be.
Speaker 2 (51:59):
He's like, bitch, leave me alone. I'm trying to enjoy
my food.
Speaker 1 (52:03):
Like literally just got it.
Speaker 2 (52:05):
It was like, bye, that's hilarious.
Speaker 1 (52:10):
Did you like my makeshift on the fly song?
Speaker 2 (52:13):
Yes, it was great.
Speaker 1 (52:17):
There's another video in there where he's actually just eating
it and cute, but he was happy, so he's nine,
which is crazy to me, and uh yeah, that's my
something happy. If you don't follow me, go and check
that out. I'll post it again because it was funny,
like he literally just like took it and ran and
(52:37):
it's bigger than his head. But we will see you
guys next week for my episode, which is gonna be creepy.
It's gonna be creepy. I'll tell you that. Creepy history
and creepy. Yeah, get ready for that. And in meantime,
keep it tisted, Twisted, Twisted, and Corked is hosted and
(53:01):
produced by Cierra Zorn and Alicia Watson. If you like
the show, don't forget to leave a five star rating
and review wherever you are listening now. It really is
the best way to spread the word. You can check
out all things Twisted on our website twisted at uncork
dot com, and we will see you next Tuesday for
a brand new episode.
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