Kowloon Walled City Park

Ever since I entered college, I have travelled less and less frequently to Hong Kong. In part to save money and in part because I have come to detest flying 19 plus hours. It's rather sad only being able to see my parents once a year at most and becoming a stranger in my homeland. On the flip side however, I've become to truly appreciate any opportunity to fly home to HK and, of course, to see my parents (and not take them for granted!). More so, I can look upon and explore HK with fresh eyes with the insatiable curiosity of a tourist imbued with an established understanding (of the language, culture etc.) as a longtime resident beforehand. It's a rather trippy experience as HK is stuck in my mind in the limbo between being home home and completely foreign.

Today I got to be all touristy and visited Kowloon Walled City Park (九龍寨城公園). I don't think I have been here since I was very very young. The history of the place is incredibly fascinating – parts of it dated from Song and the fort as a whole from 17th century Qing – but the walled city was most interesting in the 20th century after it became a legal grey area being neither in control by the Chinese nor the British. I made a point to visit after seeing it appear in the 99% Invisible Podcast. You can read more about it the walled city itself (九龍寨城) and city park here. I find it a shame that I never got to visit since it was torn down around when I was born (early 90s). My dad did manage to go visit in the early 70s and said it was a surprisingly functional (and not as scary as it seems, but then again I am a big wuss) place.

May I present to you my most exciting purchase yet...my new wing tips from Mr. Collection, a local brand. I will dedicate a post just to them in the near future since they are THAT AMAZING.

Please note my new methods for organization: Hong Kong destination specific posts (like such photo diaries) will filed under the new tag of 'Hong Kong' so that these posts can be more useful for potential visitors to the city. The tag can also be found in the side bar under destinations along with Cambodia and Greece posts. Other HK-related Posts concerning heavier topics (such as the luxury goods market etc.) will stay filed under 'Fashion'.