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Boundary
CONFIDENTE
Brief Notes on the Walled City
The Walled City, which derives its name from a stone wall built in 1847, occupies an area of 61⁄2 acres. The stone wall was demolished in 1943 during the Japanese occupation and, as a result, the exact boundary of the City cannot now be traced. Conventionally, the City is generally taken as the area bounded by West City Road to the west, Tung Tau Tauen Rond to the north, Lung Teuen Road to the east and Lưng Chun Road to the south. In early 1973, using process camera at a 1902 plan, it was possible to determine more accurately the position of the old wall, which is now shown in yellow in the attached plan. The conventional boundaries are shown in brown.
Historical Background
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Legally speaking, unlike the rest of Kowloon and New Territories which was ceded to Britain in 1898 under the Peking Convention, the Walled City became part of Hong Kong through an Order-in-Council in 1899 whereby the Hong Kong Government unilaterally revoked a clause in the Peking Convention which stipulated that the City should remain under the jurisdiction of the Chinese officials then stationed there so long as this would not jeopardise the military requirements for the defence of Hong Kong. However, since then, the Chinese Governments (Ching, Nationalist and Communist) have persistently refuted the British clain over the City. The most recent one being the CPG protest in 1963 as a result of which the HKG had to refrain from clearing some squatter huts in the City. In 1970, because of strong opposition in the Chinese Communist press, the HKG had to abandon its attempt to remove two old cannons unearthed at a construction site in the City. Prevailing academic opinion is that the jurisdiction of the City is an arguable question. But the policy of the HKG is essentially one of pragmatism,
aimed at striking a balance between the legal concept and the political reality wherever possible.
Population
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According to the 1971 Hong Kong Population and Housing Census, the population of the Walled City and the neighbouring Sai Tau Village was 19,264, a figure thought to be rather on the low side. Based on a Public Work Department plan, C-180-N7-1 dated January 74, which showed a total of 563 buildings in the City and taking an average figure of 9 persons per floor, the population was estimated to be 27,000, With the addition of at least 20 re-developed 10
14-storey high-rise buildings in the last two and a half years, it is estimated that the population should now stand in the region of 30,000 to 35,000.
CONFIDENTIAL