Kowloon () is an urban area in

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

comprising the Kowloon Peninsula and

New Kowloon New Kowloon is an area in Hong Kong, bounded in the south by Boundary Street, and in the north by the ranges of the Eagle's Nest, Beacon Hill, Lion Rock, Tate's Cairn and Kowloon Peak. It covers the present-day Kwun Tong District and Wong T ...

. With a population of 2,019,533 and a population density of in 2006, it is the most populous area in Hong Kong, compared with Hong Kong Island and the rest of the New Territories. The peninsula's area is about .

Location

Kowloon is located directly north of Hong Kong Island across

Victoria Harbour Victoria Harbour is a natural landform harbour in Hong Kong separating Hong Kong Island in the south from the Kowloon Peninsula to the north. The harbour's deep, sheltered waters and strategic location on South China Sea were instrumental in ...

. It is bordered by the

Lei Yue Mun Lei Yue Mun is a short channel in Hong Kong. It lies between Junk Bay and Victoria Harbour, separating Kowloon and Hong Kong Island. The channel is an important passage for the city, forming the eastern entrance of Victoria Harbour. The land ...

strait to the east,

Mei Foo Sun Chuen Mei Foo Sun Chuen or simply Mei Foo is a large private housing estate in Lai Chi Kok, Kowloon, Hong Kong. Mei Foo Sun Chuen was the first large scale private housing estate in Hong Kong and at the time of completion, the 99-tower complex w ...

Butterfly Valley Butterfly Valley, or Wu Tip Kuk (), is a valley in north of Lai Chi Kok in New Kowloon of Hong Kong, located between O Pui Shan and Piper's Hill. The valley was a habitat of butterflies before Japanese occupation of Hong Kong and thus named aft ...

and

Stonecutter's Island Stonecutters Island or Ngong Shuen Chau is a former island in Victoria Harbour, Hong Kong. Following land reclamation, it is now attached to the Kowloon Peninsula. Fauna The island once boasted at least three mating pairs of sulphur-crested co ...

to the west, a mountain range, including

Tate's Cairn Tate's Cairn or Tai Lo Shan () is a mountain in Hong Kong at in height. It is one of the peaks of the Kowloon Ridge and falls within Ma On Shan Country Park. The peak began to appear on colonial maps in the 1860s but remained unnamed until th ...

and

Lion Rock Lion Rock, or less formally Lion Rock Hill, is a mountain in Hong Kong. It is located in Sha Tin District, between Kowloon Tong of Kowloon and Tai Wai of the New Territories, and is high. The peak consists of granite covered sparsely by shr ...

to the north, and

to the south. Also, there are many islands scattered around Kowloon, like CAF island.

Administration

Kowloon comprises the following districts: *

Kowloon City Kowloon City is an area in New Kowloon, Hong Kong. It is part of Kowloon City District. Compared with the council area of Kowloon City District, the Kowloon City area is History As early as in the Qin dynasty (221 BCE – 206 BCE), ...

* Kwun Tong *

Sham Shui Po Sham Shui Po is an area of Kowloon, Hong Kong, situated in the northwestern part of the Kowloon Peninsula, north of Tai Kok Tsui, east of Cheung Sha Wan and south of Shek Kip Mei (). It is located in and is the namesake of the Sham Shui ...

Wong Tai Sin Wong Tai Sin or Huang Daxian () is a Chinese Taoist Deity popular in Jinhua, Zhejiang, and Hong Kong with the power of healing. The name, meaning the "Great Immortal Wong (Huang)", is the divine form of Huang Chuping or Wong Cho Ping (; c. 32 ...

* Yau Tsim Mong

Name

The name 'Kowloon' () alludes to eight mountains and a Chinese emperor:

Kowloon Peak Kowloon Peak, also known as Fei Ngo Shan (literally: "Soaring Goose Mountain"), is a tall mountain in the northeast corner of New Kowloon, Hong Kong, situated in Ma On Shan Country Park. It is the tallest mountain in Kowloon, and is crossed by ...

, Tung Shan,

, Temple Hill,

Unicorn Ridge Unicorn Ridge () is a mountain in Hong Kong at in height. It is one of the Eight Mountains of the Kowloon Ridge and falls within Lion Rock Country Park. Sha Tin Pass lies between Unicorn Ridge and Temple Hill. The summit of Unicorn Ridge is jus ...

, Beacon Hill,

Crow's Nest A crow's nest is a structure in the upper part of the main mast of a ship or a structure that is used as a lookout point. On ships, this position ensured the widest field of view for lookouts to spot approaching hazards, other ships, or land b ...

and

Emperor Bing of Song Zhao Bing (12 February 1272 – 19 March 1279), also known as Emperor Bing of Song or Bing, Emperor of Song (宋帝昺), was the 18th and last emperor of the Song dynasty of China, who ruled as a minor between 6 and 7 years of age. He was a ...

.Fallon, Steve. (2006) Hong Kong and Macau. Lonely Planet Publishing. It was also spelt 'Kawloong' in some 19th century sources.

History

Kowloon City, Mainland, opposite Hong Kong

The part of Kowloon south of

Boundary Street Boundary Street is a three-lane one-way street in Kowloon, Hong Kong. It runs in an easterly direction from its start at the intersection with Tung Chau Street in the west, and ends at its intersection with Prince Edward Road West in t ...

, together with

Stonecutters Island Stonecutters Island or Ngong Shuen Chau is a former island in Victoria Harbour, Hong Kong. Following land reclamation, it is now attached to the Kowloon Peninsula. Fauna The island once boasted at least three mating pairs of sulphur-crested co ...

, was ceded by Qing China to the United Kingdom under the

Convention of Peking The Convention of Peking or First Convention of Peking is an agreement comprising three distinct treaties concluded between the Qing dynasty of China and Great Britain, France, and the Russian Empire in 1860. In China, they are regarded as amon ...

of 1860. For many years the area remained largely undeveloped, used by the British mainly for tiger-hunting expeditions. The part of Kowloon north of Boundary Street (

) was leased by the British as part of the

New Territories The New Territories is one of the three main regions of Hong Kong, alongside Hong Kong Island and the Kowloon Peninsula. It makes up 86.2% of Hong Kong's territory, and contains around half of the population of Hong Kong. Historically, it ...

under the 1898

Second Convention of Peking The second (symbol: s) is the unit of time in the International System of Units (SI), historically defined as of a day – this factor derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes and finally to 60 seconds each ...

for 99 years. Within New Kowloon is Kowloon City, an area of Hong Kong where the

Kowloon Walled City Kowloon Walled City was an ungoverned and densely populated ''de jure'' Imperial Chinese enclave within the boundaries of Kowloon City, British Hong Kong. Originally a Chinese military fort, the walled city became an enclave after the New ...

used to be located. The Kowloon Walled City itself was demolished in 1993. The same area was called Kwun Fu Cheung () during the

Song dynasty The Song dynasty (; ; 960–1279) was an imperial dynasty of China that began in 960 and lasted until 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song following his usurpation of the throne of the Later Zhou. The Song conquered the rest ...

(9601279). "New Kowloon" has remained part of the

. Statutorily, "Kowloon" is only the area south of Boundary Street and Stonecutters Island, but in common use, New Kowloon is not regarded as part of the New Territories, but as an integral part of the Kowloon urban area whether north or south of Boundary Street. Large-scale development of Kowloon began in the early 20th century, with the construction of the Kowloon-Canton Railway and the Kowloon Wharf, but because of the close proximity of Kowloon's built-up area to

Kai Tak Airport Kai Tak Airport was the international airport of Hong Kong from 1925 until 1998. Officially known as Hong Kong International Airport from 1954 to 6 July 1998, it is often referred to as Hong Kong International Airport, Kai Tak, or simply Ka ...

, building construction was limited by flight paths. As a result, compared to Hong Kong Island, Kowloon had a much lower skyline. After

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, Kowloon became extremely congested when slums for refugees from the newly established People's Republic of China gave way to

public housing estate Public housing is a form of housing tenure in which the property is usually owned by a government authority, either central or local. Although the common goal of public housing is to provide affordable housing, the details, terminology, def ...

s, mixed with private residential, commercial, and industrial areas. The area of

reclaimed land Land reclamation, usually known as reclamation, and also known as land fill (not to be confused with a waste landfill), is the process of creating new land from oceans, seas, riverbeds or lake beds. The land reclaimed is known as reclamati ...

known as

West Kowloon West Kowloon () is the western part of Kowloon Peninsula in Hong Kong, situated within the Yau Tsim Mong District and Sham Shui Po District. It is bounded by Canton Road to the east, Victoria Harbour to the west and the south, and Jorda ...

was once home to a

dockyard A shipyard, also called a dockyard or boatyard, is a place where ships are built and repaired. These can be yachts, military vessels, cruise liners or other cargo or passenger ships. Dockyards are sometimes more associated with maintenance ...

for the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...

. The 1911 census recorded a population of 7,306, with most being

Hakka The Hakka (), sometimes also referred to as Hakka Han, or Hakka Chinese, or Hakkas are a Han Chinese subgroup whose ancestral homes are chiefly in the Hakka-speaking provincial areas of Guangdong, Fujian, Jiangxi, Guangxi, Sichuan, Hunan, Zhej ...

. The invasion of China by Japan in 1937 caused the population of Kowloon to grow drastically. Between 1937 and 1939, 750,000 refugees arrived in Kowloon and nearby areas, with many not having residence.

Demographics

, 2,108,419 people lived in Kowloon. About 94.2% of Kowloon's residents are of ethnicity. The largest ethnic minority groups are Indonesians (1.8%),

Filipinos Filipinos ( tl, Mga Pilipino) are the people who are citizens of or native to the Philippines. The majority of Filipinos today come from various Austronesian ethnolinguistic groups, all typically speaking either Filipino, English and/or othe ...

(1.5%), Indians (0.5%), Nepalese (0.4%), and

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

(0.3%). Around 86% of Kowloon's residents use

Cantonese Cantonese ( zh, t=廣東話, s=广东话, first=t, cy=Gwóngdūng wá) is a language within the Chinese (Sinitic) branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages originating from the city of Guangzhou (historically known as Canton) and its surrounding ar ...

as their usual language, while 2.3% use English and 1.2% use

Mandarin Mandarin or The Mandarin may refer to: Language * Mandarin Chinese, branch of Chinese originally spoken in northern parts of the country ** Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Mandarin, the official language of China ** Taiwanese Mandarin, Stand ...

Localities

Kowloon comprises these localities of Hong Kong: * Anderson Road area * Austin *

Cha Kwo Ling Cha Kwo Ling () is a hill in the eastern New Kowloon area of Hong Kong, and the area around it. It is adjacent to Victoria Harbour and located to the west of Yau Tong and southwest of Lam Tin. Administratively, it belongs to the Kwun Tong ...

Cheung Sha Wan Cheung Sha Wan is an area between Lai Chi Kok and Sham Shui Po in New Kowloon, Hong Kong. It is mainly residential to the north and south, with an industrial area in between. Administratively it is part of Sham Shui Po District, which als ...

Diamond Hill Diamond Hill is a hill in the east of Kowloon, Hong Kong. The name also refers to the area on or adjacent to the hill. It is surrounded by Ngau Chi Wan, San Po Kong, Wong Tai Sin and Tsz Wan Shan. Its northeast is limited by the ridge. It is p ...

Jordan Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan Rive ...

* Hammer Hill * Hung Hom * Ho Man Tin *

Kai Tak Kai Tak Airport was the international airport of Hong Kong from 1925 until 1998. Officially known as Hong Kong International Airport from 1954 to 6 July 1998, it is often referred to as Hong Kong International Airport, Kai Tak, or simply Ka ...

Kowloon Bay Kowloon Bay is a body of water within Victoria Harbour and an area within Kowloon, Hong Kong. The bay is located at the east of the Kowloon Peninsula and north of Hong Kong Island. It is the eastern portion of Victoria Harbour, between ...

Kowloon Tong Kowloon Tong () is an area of Hong Kong located in Kowloon. The majority of the area is in the Kowloon City District. Its exaclocationis south of the Lion Rock, north of Boundary Street, east of the East Rail line and west of Grampian Road. It ...

* Kwun Tong *

Lai Chi Kok Lai Chi Kok is a neighbourhood in Kowloon, Hong Kong, east of Kwai Chung and west of Cheung Sha Wan. Mei Foo Sun Chuen is the largest housing estate in the area and also the largest in Hong Kong with 99 blocks. Administratively, it belongs t ...

Lam Tin Lam Tin is an area in the Kwun Tong District in southeastern New Kowloon, Hong Kong. Lam Tin is primarily a residential area but also hosts a major transport interchange and several shopping attractions. Lam Tin was once a large field in th ...

Ma Tau Wai Ma Tau Wai (, originally , historically ) is an area in the Kowloon City District, Kowloon, Hong Kong. It was originally a walled village (Cantonese: ''Wai'') between present-day Argyle Street and Prince Edward Road West, east of present-d ...

Mong Kok Mong Kok (also spelled Mongkok, often abbreviated as MK) is an area in Kowloon, Hong Kong. The Prince Edward subarea occupies the northern part of Mong Kok. Mong Kok is one of the major shopping areas in Hong Kong. The area is characterised ...

Ngau Chi Wan Ngau Chi Wan was a bay beneath Hammer Hill in New Kowloon, Hong Kong. It now refers to an area where Choi Hung Estate is situated. Features Amidst in an urban built-up area, the original Ngau Chi Wan Village remains. St. Joseph's Home fo ...

Ngau Tau Kok Ngau Tau Kok is an area of eastern Kowloon in Hong Kong, in the north of Kwun Tong District east to Kowloon Bay. Largely residential, Ngau Tau Kok has a population in excess of 210,000. Geography In Chinese, Ngau Tau Kok means ''ox horn'' ...

* Prince Edward *

San Po Kong San Po Kong () is an area in New Kowloon in Hong Kong. It is largely industrial and partly residential. Administratively, it belongs to Wong Tai Sin District. Location San Po Kong is located south of Wong Tai Sin and Diamond Hill, north of th ...

* Sau Mau Ping *

Shek Kip Mei Shek Kip Mei, is an area in New Kowloon, to the northeast of the Kowloon Peninsula of Hong Kong. It borders Sham Shui Po and Kowloon Tong. History At the time of the 1911 census, the population of Shek Kip Mei was 72. A major fire on 25 ...

Tai Kok Tsui Tai Kok Tsui is an area west of Mong Kok in Kowloon, Hong Kong. The mixed land use of industrial and residential is present in the old area. The Cosmopolitan Dock and oil depots were previously located there. Blocks of high-rise residential b ...

To Kwa Wan To Kwa Wan () is a bay and an area of the eastern shore of Kowloon peninsula. The area is part of urban Hong Kong, and is situated between Hok Yuen, Hung Hom, Ma Tau Wai and Ma Tau Kok. Administratively, the area belongs to the Kowloon ...

Tsim Sha Tsui Tsim Sha Tsui, often abbreviated as TST, is an urban area in southern Kowloon, Hong Kong. The area is administratively part of the Yau Tsim Mong District. Tsim Sha Tsui East is a piece of land reclaimed from the Hung Hom Bay now east of Tsi ...

Tsz Wan Shan Tsz Wan Shan () is a residential area in Kowloon, Hong Kong. Located below Temple Hill, it is administratively part of Wong Tai Sin District. (Note that Temple Hill is also called ''Tsz Wan Shan'' , but Tsz Wan Shan usually refers to the ar ...

Yau Ma Tei Yau Ma Tei is an area in the Yau Tsim Mong District in the south of the Kowloon Peninsula in Hong Kong. Name ''Yau Ma Tei'' is a phonetic transliteration of the name (originally written as ) in Cantonese. It can also be spelt as Yaumatei, ...

Yau Tong Yau Tong () is an area of Hong Kong, located in the southeastern end of Kowloon, between Lei Yue Mun and Lam Tin, at the east shore of Victoria Harbour, west of Tseung Kwan O. Administratively, it is part of Kwun Tong District, the most de ...

Education

The Hong Kong Polytechnic University east

Lists of primary and secondary schools in Kowloon by district: *

List of schools in Kowloon City District This is a list of schools in Kowloon City District, Hong Kong. Secondary schools ; Government * (藝術與科技教育中心) * (何文田官立中學) * Jockey Club Government Secondary School (賽馬會官立中學) ; Aided * Bishop Hall ...

* List of schools in Kwun Tong District * List of schools in Sham Shui Po District *

List of schools in Wong Tai Sin District This is a list of schools in Wong Tai Sin District, Hong Kong. Secondary schools ; Government * Lung Cheung Government Secondary School ; Aided * (佛教孔仙洲紀念中學) * CCC Heep Woh College (中華基督教會協和書院) * (中華 ...

List of schools in Yau Tsim Mong District This is a list of schools in Yau Tsim Mong District, Hong Kong. Secondary schools ; Government * Queen Elizabeth School * Sir Ellis Kadoorie Secondary School (West Kowloon) ; Aided * (中華基督教會銘基書院) * ELCHK Lutheran Seconda ...

Tertiary education

City University of Hong Kong City University of Hong Kong (CityU) is a world-class public research university located in Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong. It was founded in 1984 as City Polytechnic of Hong Kong and became a fully accredited university in 1994. Currently, CityU is ...

* Hong Kong Polytechnic University *

Hong Kong Baptist University Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU) is a publicly funded tertiary liberal arts institution with a Christian education heritage. It was established as Hong Kong Baptist College with the support of American Baptists, who provided both operatin ...

Open University of Hong Kong Hong Kong Metropolitan University (HKMU) is a university in Ho Man Tin, Hong Kong. Established as the Open Learning Institute of Hong Kong by the Hong Kong government in 1989, HKMU now consists of five schools, namely the School of Arts and So ...

Tung Wah College Tung Wah College (TWC; ) is a self-financing degree granting tertiary institution of Hong Kong, established by the Tung Wah Group of Hospitals (TWGHs) in 2010 and registered under the Post-Secondary Colleges Ordinance (Cap 320). With a mission ...

Hong Kong Nang Yan College of Higher Education Hong Kong Nang Yan College of Higher Education (HKNYC) is a private higher education provider in Hong Kong. The College was founded in 1969 as the Hong Kong Buddhist College (HKBC), and changed its name in 2014 when it was granted accredita ...

* Gratia Christian College

Notable people

* Sean Parry (born 1987), cricketer

Transport

Kowloon is connected to Hong Kong Island by two road-only

tunnel A tunnel is an underground passageway, dug through surrounding soil, earth or rock, and enclosed except for the entrance and exit, commonly at each end. A pipeline is not a tunnel, though some recent tunnels have used immersed tube cons ...

s (the

Cross-Harbour Tunnel The Cross-Harbour Tunnel (abbreviated ''CHT'' or ''XHT'') is the first tunnel in Hong Kong built underwater. It consists of two steel road tunnels each with two lanes constructed using the single shell immersed tube method. It is the earl ...

and the

Western Harbour Crossing The Western Harbour Crossing (WHC) is a dual 3-lane immersed tube tunnel in Hong Kong. It is the third road tunnel to cross Victoria Harbour, linking the newly reclaimed land in Yau Ma Tei on Kowloon West with Sai Ying Pun on Hong Kong Isl ...

), three MTR railway tunnels (

Tsuen Wan line The Tsuen Wan line is one of the eleven lines of the metro network in Hong Kong's MTR. It is indicated in red on the MTR map. There are 16 stations on the line. The southern terminus is Central station on Hong Kong Island and the no ...

Tung Chung line The Tung Chung line is one of the ten lines of the MTR system in Hong Kong, linking the town of Tung Chung with central Hong Kong. A part of the Tung Chung line was built along with the Kap Shui Mun Bridge and the Tsing Ma Bridge. The line c ...

Airport Express The AirPort Express is a Wi-Fi base station product from Apple Inc., part of the AirPort product line. While more compact and in some ways simpler than another Apple Wi-Fi base station, the AirPort Extreme, the Express offers audio output cap ...

and East Rail) and one combined road and MTR rail link tunnel ( Eastern Harbour Tunnel, containing the

Tseung Kwan O line The Tseung Kwan O line is one of the eleven lines of the MTR system in Hong Kong, indicated by the colour purple. It is currently long, taking 15 minutes to travel throughout the entire line. The line runs from North Point on the Hong Kong Is ...

and road traffic in separate parallel conduits). No bridges connect the island and Kowloon.

Gallery

File:The Urban Council Centenary Garden Fountain 2009.jpg, Urban Council Centenary Garden fountain, Tsim Sha Tsui File:Maze Garden, Kowloon Park, Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon, Hong Kong - DSC06248.JPG, Maze Garden,

Kowloon Park Kowloon Park is a large public park in Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon, Hong Kong. It has an area of and is managed by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department.Leisure and Cultural Services DepartmentKowloon Park: Historical Background History ...

, Tsim Sha Tsui File:Boeing 747-428, Air France AN0278440.jpg, An Air France Boeing 747 passing above Kowloon, prior to landing at the old airport in 1998. File:Tsim Sha Tsui Star Ferry Pier.jpg, Star Ferry Pier, with the Hong Kong Cultural Centre and

Tsim Sha Tsui Clock Tower The Clock Tower is a landmark in Hong Kong. It is located the southern shore of Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon. It is the only remnant of the original site of the former Kowloon station on the Kowloon–Canton Railway. Officially named Former Kowloon- ...

in the background. File:Kowloon Masjid and Islamic Centre from East 2.jpg,

Kowloon Masjid and Islamic Centre The Kowloon Masjid and Islamic Centre or Kowloon Mosque is one of five main mosques in Hong Kong. Located in Kowloon, in the Tsim Sha Tsui area at the intersection of Nathan Road and Haiphong Road, beside Kowloon Park, this mosque is curre ...

File:Kowloon-from-Hong-Kong-Island-2015-Luka-Peternel.jpg, Night view of Kowloon from Hong Kong Island

References

External links

* * {{Coord, 22, 19, N, 114, 11, E, display=title Cities in Asia Populated coastal places in Hong Kong Populated places in Hong Kong