A marketplace unofficially formed, the Kowloon Street had active trade with various villages in Kowloon, Stanley (on the Hong Kong Island) and even Shenzhen and Shiwan in Guangdong. It was a composite of nests of shabby houses around Tung Tau Tsuen. As it linked up Lung Tsun Pavilion in the east and the entrance of the Walled City in the west, people who went to the Walled City by water must pass through the Kowloon Street. On the two sides of the Street were small stalls selling foodstuffs, vegetables and groceries; other “magical” articles, like Chinese herbs, seafood and games, which intrigued foreigners in no small extent, were also available. Different kinds of industries, moreover, clustered along the Kowloon Street: stonemasons, blacksmiths, tailors and fortune-tellers abounded, and gold shops, silver shops, pawn shops, teahouses, taverns, opium dens and gambling dens never fell short in number. A visit to the Kowloon Street was to the avid foreign adventurers a fascinating eye-opener!
The gambling industry of Hong Kong flourished from 1867 to 1871 when the government set loose the restriction. But when in 1872, the government decided to suppress gambling anew with a view to pacify social contestations and reinforce social order, many gambling dens were forced to resettle, and many of them moved to the north of Boundary Street, that is, Kowloon City. With its extraordinary number of gambling dens, the Kowloon Street became a paradise for foreigners who wanted to try their luck or launder their dirty money or defalcate. Many of these people ruined, or even lost, their lives there. When the north of Boundary Street fell under British rule in 1898, gambling dens moved inside the Walled City, remaining rather unaffected. Foreigners, too, kept their colorful and perhaps dire lives on inside the walls.