"Kowloon - City of Life" a Kowloon Travel Page by Kurtdhis

The name Kowloon is thought to have originated when the last emperor of the Song dynasty passed through the area during his flight from the Mongols. He is said to have counted eight on the peninsula and commented that there must therefore be eight dragons there - but was reminded that since he himself was present there must be nine. Kowloon is thus derived from the Can- tonese words gau, meaning nine, and long, for dragon.

It covers a mere 12 sq km of high-rise buildings extending from the Tsim Sha Tsui waterfront to Boundary St. Apart from a few notable exceptions, Kowloon is architecturally unexciting. Height restrictions for buildings (because aircraft bound for Kai Tak airport had to skim Kowloon rooftops) give the district a much lower skyline than in Central. Central is alsoHong Kong's financial heart, shown off as its most prized asset, while Kowloon is more a crowded province of mercantile mayhem. There is none of the slickness of Central (except the pockets of glamour in top-end hotel shopping arcades), and for the most part Kowloon is a riot of tourist commerce set to a gritty backdrop of crumbling tencinent blocks.

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There are impressive buildings, none the less, supported by intriguing sights. Love or hate its design, the Hong Kong Cultural Centre is a bold stab at turning Hong Kong into something more than a city obsessed with wealth. The Peninsula is one of Hong Kong's great colonial buildings and, at night, the Promenade along Victoria Harbour is a stunning technicolour vista of Central and Wan Chai - the subject of countless post- cards. Kowloon Park is a blessed haven for the tired denizens of Nathan Rd and the Hong Kong History Museum is a must-see for those who want a coloudul and imaginative guide through the Hong Kong of yesterday. Kowloon's districts are best seen on foot.

Unlike on Hong Kong Island, there's no tram to ferry you around; but areas of interest are not spaced too far apart, and these are the areas with the highest concentration of hotels, restaurants and amenities.

The streets of Tsim Tsou Choi, the southernmost point of the Kowloon peninsula, burn with neon, giving the streets an almost shadowless light, the different colors blending into a bright diffuse haze.

The neon is not the same as neon in the Taiwan, and for a time I can't figure out why. The colors are the same, and though the signs are written in Cantonese, it is the quality of the light that is different, not just the signs themselves. I decide that it must be the sheer amount of light, when I suddenly notice none of the signs are blinking, every inch of neon is burning without interruption.

The next day, pursuing this, I learn that as the airport is in the middle of Kowloon, electrical signs are not permitted to blink or flash, so as not to distract the pilots during the notoriously difficult landing.