Online Gallery – On the Verge of Metropolis: Squatters in Hong Kong
On the Verge of Metropolis: Squatters in Hong Kong
A visual journey in post-war Hong Kong. These rare and striking images remind us a time before Hong Kong emerged as the high-rise financial hub we know today.
Squatters in Hong Kong: 1950s – 1980s. Ko Tim Keung
Between the late 1940s and 1970s, Hong Kong faced immense problems arising from a surge in urban population. At the end of the war, the number stood at around 600,000. By the end of the 1970s, it had skyrocketed to five million, almost 90% of which was within the urban areas. Besides the high rate of natural increase, of greater importance was immigration from mainland China. It was estimated that by the late 1960s, the densities of population in sizeable urban areas had become perhaps the highest in the world. Read more
