Bringing out the good stuff in Second Life®: fashion, hot spots, freebies, etc.

In my ongoing effort to showcase some of the best looking places on SL, old and new, I give you Kowloon ! It has been around, I believe, for about two years and recreates the now defunct Hong-Kong district as it was represented in a once popular Japanese video game. It is still a fairly busy locale here on SL, especially frequented by photographers, though it should not be forgotten that one can also rent apartments there, something which I found myself seriously considering while snooping around each building. But I will have to resist !

I am being told Kowloon was originally a military fort in the 1800′s, which then went on to become this completely walled in-city, standing by itself, that fell under triad control in the 1950-70′s, and is now completely abandonned, and largely gone, save for a few buildings and squatters. Thanks, Gomi!

Taken from the net:

“The Kowloon Walled City was located just outside Hong Kong, China during British rule. A former watchpost to protect the area against pirates, it was occupied by Japan during World War II and subsequently taken over by squatters after Japan’s surrender. Neither Britain nor China wanted responsibility for it, so it became its own lawless city.”

“Its population flourished for decades, with residents building labyrinthine corridors above the street level, which was clogged with trash. The buildings grew so tall that sunlight couldn’t reach the bottom levels and the entire city had to be illuminated with fluorescent lights. It was a place where brothels, casinos, opium dens, cocaine parlors, food courts serving dog meat and secret factories ran unmolested by authorities. It was finally torn down in 1993 after a mutual decision was made by British and Chinese authorities, who had finally grown wary of the unsanitary, anarchic city and its out-of-control population.”

Unedited pictures, taken with shadows.