The Most Crowded Place in History

Happy Friday, dudes.
Another week survived.

🗓️ Today In History

On this day in 1775, Paul Revere set out thinking it would be a routine night. Instead, he pulled off one of the most famous rides in American history. Revere was part of an underground network that had been spying on British troop movements for weeks. When two lanterns lit up in Boston’s Old North Church — the signal that the British were crossing the river — Revere jumped on his horse and rode out to warn the colonial militias. (The whole “The British are coming!” quote? Never actually said it like that. Most colonists still considered themselves British at the time.) Either way, the midnight ride worked, and the American Revolution was officially on.

❓ Trivia

🌇 The Most Crowded Place in History: Kowloon Walled City

At its peak, Kowloon Walled City was the most insanely packed place in human history. Somewhere between 30,000 and 50,000 people were crammed into just six and a half acres. To put that into perspective, the East Village in New York covers 600 acres and fits about 44,000 people. Manhattan’s whole island averages around 70,000 people per square mile. Kowloon? Try over three million people per square mile. That is not a typo. It was like stuffing the entire East Village into a plot of land about the size of one Walmart and telling everyone to bring their friends.

Picture dozens of apartment blocks duct-taped together into one giant concrete organism. Shops, noodle stands, metal workshops, dentists, brothels, kitchens, illegal factories. No streets. No parks. Just a vertical labyrinth of life jammed shoulder to shoulder, floor to ceiling.

How did this happen? Blame a legal loophole.

Kowloon started as a Chinese military fort. Then Britain showed up, fought a few messy opium wars, and took over Hong Kong. In the chaos of drawing new borders, the Walled City got left hanging. Technically, Chinese land. Surrounded by British land. Governed by no one.

Both governments basically threw up their hands and walked away. After World War II, Hong Kong was flooded with refugees, and Kowloon became the ultimate squatters' paradise. No taxes. No inspections. No building codes. If you could build it, it was yours.

Buildings were thrown up fast and loose. Some started as one-room homes. Then became three floors. Then five. Then 14 stories, barely held together with scrap wood, concrete, and hope. The only real restriction was a strict height limit because planes flying into Kai Tak Airport had to skim right over the rooftops.

Crime loved the chaos. Triad gangs ran protection rackets, drug dens, gambling, prostitution, and heroin trafficking. Police raids happened, but they were quick in-and-out jobs. Kowloon was its own ecosystem.

And yet, somehow, it worked. Dentists set up clinics. Schools and churches opened. People got married, raised kids, ran businesses. You could mail a letter to someone in the middle of the maze and expect it to arrive.

By the late 1980s, it was clear Kowloon could not survive much longer. Between the collapsing buildings, risk of fires, and the upcoming 1997 handover — when Britain’s 99-year lease on Hong Kong would expire and China would take back control — the British and Chinese governments finally agreed to pull the plug. Demolition started in 1993.

Today, the site is a peaceful park, with a few pieces of the old walls and a model of the city as a reminder that, somehow, this madness once existed.

Some people remember Kowloon as a dystopian nightmare. Others see it as a miracle of human grit and survival. The truth is probably somewhere in the middle. It was ugly. It was beautiful. It was absolutely real.