Kowloon Walled City Park

As you know by now, we love to visit parks. This is one of the best anywhere. Once upon a time, like in the 15th century, Kowloon Bay was an important outpost for imperial China. In 1668 a signal station was built. (What the heck is a signal station, I ask? Robb replies, to signal that European ships are here and we'd better fight them. Or something like that.)

Here's all that remains of the original walled city.



Okay. So somebody built a fort in 1810 and the British occupied Hong Kong in 1841 and in 1898, China leased the New Territories to the British for 99 years and the walled city became a notorious haven for prostitution, gambling, drugs and - OMG - unlicensed dentists and Japan occupied Hong Kong from 1941 to 1945 and tore most of the walls down to build an airport and between 1994 and 1996 both Britain and China agree to clean it up and rebuild the park and in 1997 Britain hands over Hong Kong to China.

Exellent historical spot for a school field trip.



But mostly just plain beautiful.