Kowloon City District
A walled city’s ghost, Thai kitchens and the old runway
Few districts change character as quickly as Kowloon City. A park now fills the site of the Walled City, close to streets known for Thai and Chiu Chow food. Beyond them, the old Kai Tak airport land is turning into a large new part of town. Further south, To Kwa Wan and Hung Hom mix older flats, workshops, arts spaces and homes by the water.
The name can mislead: the Kowloon City neighbourhood is just one part of the district. The Walled City Park feels nothing like an afternoon in Whampoa or a big event at Kai Tak. Together they show how migrants, industry, the airport and rebuilding made central and eastern Kowloon.
A lunch street and a huge new development can sit side by side yet feel worlds apart. The best walks leave time for the plain blocks between the famous places, old and new.
How this page was madeThe day panel and the first-hand notes in this profile are our own, from days we have spent here. The rest is researched from the Hong Kong Government and MTR sources listed at the foot of the page, checked in October 2026.
Last updated 9 October 2026
Places of interest
The district takes in Kowloon City, Kowloon Tong, Ho Man Tin, To Kwa Wan, Hung Hom, Whampoa and much of Kai Tak. It runs from homes and schools inland down to Victoria Harbour, with Wong Tai Sin to the northeast, Sham Shui Po to the west and Kwun Tong to the east.
Each part has its own feel. Kowloon Tong is known for homes and schools; Ho Man Tin sits on higher ground; old Kowloon City has tight streets and a name for food. To Kwa Wan has older blocks, while in Hung Hom and Whampoa the housing runs down to the harbour.
Kowloon Walled City Park
Come here first for the history. The old yamen building, the remains and the displays tell the true story of a place whose fame often drowns it out. See the displays and remains first, then walk the gardens; the other way round, today’s calm can hide the crowded settlement it replaced. It helps to tell an original structure from an archaeological trace, and both from later garden design. More in our Heritage and museums guide. From Sung Wong Toi MTR (Exit B3), it is about a 20-minute walk along Olympic Avenue.
Sung Wong Toi Garden
Sung Wong Toi Garden keeps the inscribed boulder linked to the late Song emperors’ time in the area. Railway works nearby turned up more finds, proof that the district’s story runs far deeper than the twentieth century.
Kai Tak Sports Park
Kai Tak Sports Park is now a major home for sport and shows. The new city around it is worth a look too, but plan your walking with care.
Sport and shows are the reason to come, so plan around an event or the parts open to the public: you cannot walk into every venue at any time. On event days, travel can work differently; check the venue’s advice first.
The Cattle Depot Artist Village in To Kwa Wan
The Cattle Depot Artist Village in To Kwa Wan reuses part of an old cattle depot. Its historic buildings and the art made inside make a good stop. Each studio and programme sets its own rules for entry, so respect the working spaces.
Ko Shan Theatre
Ko Shan Theatre is another reason to head south, above all if Cantonese opera draws you. Hoi Sham Park and the Hung Hom waterfront make good open-air breaks, with a different harbour view from the one at Tsim Sha Tsui.
South Wall Road
Close to the Walled City Park, South Wall Road is lined with Thai restaurants: the obvious place for lunch after the park.
Kai Tak Cruise Terminal’s rooftop park
The terminal at the end of the old runway has a rooftop park with long harbour views, a fine place to watch the sunset before dinner at one of the terminal’s restaurants.
Plan your transport: the runway may look close on the skyline, but it is no quick walk from old Kowloon City.
After the Walled City Park, spend a few minutes on an ordinary nearby street. Look at the food shops, doorways and people passing through. The contrast is not simply between history and the present; it is between a place carefully interpreted for visitors and a neighbourhood continuing its own routines. Give the streets that attention before moving on to Kai Tak’s much larger development landscape.
Shopping and food
Kowloon City rewards anyone who comes to eat. Around the old town centre, Thai restaurants, grocers and Chiu Chow eating houses crowd together. “Little Thailand” is more than a cute nickname: look at the shops and community ties behind it.
Whampoa has bigger shops and plenty of places to eat. The ship-shaped Whampoa building is an easy landmark, and the streets and estate layout around it belong to a different era from old Kowloon City.
Festival Walk at Kowloon Tong is a standard mall at a rail interchange. Around Hung Hom and To Kwa Wan, small shops and markets serve daily needs. Kai Tak’s new buildings add more shops and food, though a newly finished mall may feel unlike an old town centre.
How Kowloon City came to be
The Walled City began as a fortified Chinese government post. By the late twentieth century it had become extraordinarily dense: homes and businesses packed into a tiny area where it was never quite clear whose laws applied. It was cleared in the early 1990s; Kowloon Walled City Park opened in 1995.
The park keeps surviving structures and archaeological traces, but the garden is a deliberate redesign. Remember that, and you won’t mistake today’s calm garden for the place people once lived in. The displays bridge the gap.
For decades, Kai Tak Airport shaped the district around it. Planes coming in to land, airport jobs and height limits marked both daily life and the shape of the city. The airport closed in 1998, when flights moved to Chek Lap Kok. Its rebuilding is still one of the clearest cases of a vast old transport site becoming new city.
Hung Hom grew up around docks and industry, then large housing estates. To Kwa Wan keeps traces of older working life, among them the old cattle depot. So the Walled City alone cannot explain the district: docks, factories, transport and housing all left deep marks too.
Rebuilding makes it easy to see what lasts and what goes. Some old places survive as protected sites; others live on in working streets where people still live. That matters, because keeping the past can mean saving a building, explaining a place that has vanished, or letting a community keep using somewhere it knows.
People and economy
Kowloon City District counted 410,634 residents in the 2021 Population Census. That count came before some of the building still going on at Kai Tak, so treat it as a dated baseline.
People live in very different settings: older flats in To Kwa Wan and Kowloon City, large private estates around Whampoa, public and private housing in Ho Man Tin, and new homes at Kai Tak. Kowloon Tong’s settled streets are different again.
Schools and colleges, local services, shops and food make up much of the economy. Kowloon City’s restaurants draw people from far beyond the area, with Thai and Chiu Chow cooking to the fore. Hotels and other hospitality firms serve locals and travellers alike.
Hung Hom and To Kwa Wan still mix business and industry with homes. Some old working sites now house the arts, while rebuilding shifts the balance. Building work and new property are most visible around Kai Tak.
The old airport land now holds major public buildings: the cruise terminal, Hong Kong Children’s Hospital and Kai Tak Sports Park, which opened in March 2025. They draw different streams of workers and visitors from the old airport’s.
Getting there and around
At Kowloon Tong the Kwun Tong and East Rail lines meet. Hung Hom station, on the district’s western edge in neighbouring Yau Tsim Mong, is another key gateway, linking the East Rail and Tuen Ma lines. Pick your station to suit where you are going. Main roads include the big Kowloon routes and the Cross-Harbour Tunnel near Hung Hom.
For fares, cards and the wider network, see Getting around Hong Kong.
A final word on Kowloon City
Kowloon City wears its history lightly: a walled city become a garden, an emperor’s rock, and an airport runway turned into a park above the harbour.
Andrew + Margaret
- Where to stay: Kowloon City and Kai Tak Decide
- Visiting Hong Kong: all eighteen districts Overview
- History, heritage and museums Culture
- Getting around Hong Kong Practical
- 2021 Population Census district profiles Official
- Lands Department: Hong Kong Geographic Data Official
- Home Affairs Department: the 18 districts Official
- Hong Kong Fun in 18 Districts: Kowloon City Official
- MTR Trip Planner Practical