Chapter 518 Cage House!

Come out from grandma's place.

Yang Ming walked forward and found something different from when he first arrived.

When he first arrived, many residents of Kowloon Walled City deliberately avoided him.

Now many men, women and children inside are coming out and watching from a short distance away.

From the clothes, looks, etc. of these people, Yang Ming could tell a lot.

"Mr. Yang, I know you. I often see news about you in the newspaper."

A man wearing a red vest and bending over walked over directly.

At first, Zhang Guohua and others were a little wary.

"Hello."

"Mr. Yang, hello, my name is Lai Guowen."

The old man introduced himself.

"Mr. Lai, I would like to come and understand the situation of Kowloon Walled City."

"sure."

Lai Guowen asked Yang Ming to step aside.

When he sat down next to him, Yang Ming looked at the children aged seven or eight. Not only were they dirty, they were also fighting with each other.

During this time, students in Xiangjiang should be going to school. Why are these children here?

"Mr. Lai, don't they go to school?"

Lai Guowen nodded and shook his head.

"Most children in Kowloon Walled City do not have the conditions to go to school. There are kindergartens and primary schools, but most people have no way to go to school. These children have long been the labor force of the family."

Yang Ming was really surprised.

In the past, he felt that the country was poor and many families could not afford to send their children to school.

It is actually the same here in Kowloon Walled City in Hong Kong.

So what happens to these children who don’t read?

Yang Ming didn't need Lai Guowen to explain, he also understood that basically, in addition to becoming coolies, child laborers, and laborers, some of these children also became new members of criminal gangs.

Including gangsters, stealing, robbing, or other things.

Basically, they are all formed in this environment.

If they are lucky, they can leave this place and live and work in other places in Hong Kong, which may change their destiny. Most people will have a bad impression if they hear that these people are from the Kowloon Walled City.

"We have primary schools and kindergartens here, which are run by the Christian charity The Salvation Army. However, not everyone or every family is willing to send their children to study."

Yang Ming nodded.

"Then where do you usually work?"

"Work? We have processing plants here and various service industries."

There are also some working in the metal processing industry in the building.

Most of these factories are concentrated between the basement and the fifth floor.

In the basement facing the road, there is an unlicensed dentist, a stall, a tea ceremony (cafe), and a shop selling "dogs".

It is said that processed foods popular in Xiangjiang, including fish dumplings (fish balls) and meat products, are produced in processing plants with few hygiene standards.

In addition to these, of course there are casinos, but they are controlled by the associations inside.

Lai Guowen didn't say it, but Yang Ming also knew it.

"How do you solve your domestic water problem?"

"Mr. Yang, we have drilled wells 90 meters or deeper in 77 locations here, and use electric pumps to pump the water needed for daily life into water tanks on the roofs of buildings. From there to each home, the water passes through thin tubes Transportation. However, as the population increases, especially with the arrival of a large number of new immigrants, the original well water is no longer enough, and some people will sell the water here. "

"Isn't the water from the Xiangjiang Water Company flowing here?"

Before Yang Ming came, he thought water from Xiangjiang Water Company was provided here.

For example, Xiangjiang tap water provides salt water, mainly used for flushing toilets, and fresh water, which is used by residents for domestic purposes.

If there is no salt water here and can only be solved by water from wells, you can imagine the difficulties involved.

"No, people from Xiangjiang Water Company won't come here because they can't collect water bills."

This time Yang Ming finally understood.

"What about your electricity?"

"Electricity for daily use? Only some people use it. Most people don't turn on the electricity at night. We don't know where the electricity comes from. Anyway, we have to pay those people to use electricity."

. . .

Yang Ming also learned a lot from Lai Guowen.

"Mr. Lai, where do you live? I want to visit your home?"

ah!

Sir Young wants to see where he lives.

Lai Guowen was a little embarrassed.

"Mr. Lai, is it inconvenient?"

"No, I'm just afraid that Mr. Yang might feel uncomfortable seeing it."

Lai Guowen took Yang Ming and others out of here and walked around to one of the buildings.

Mr. Lai lives upstairs.

He did not live alone in one place, but in a group of people.

Yang Ming, Mailisi, Zhou Kaixuan and others were accompanied by Sir and others.

All the way there.

Lai Guowen said: "Mr. Yang, be careful. It's very dark here during the day as well as at night. The stairs are equipped with electric lights, but they often break down."

The light in the stairway is not on now, it may be broken.

Sir turned on the flashlight he had brought in advance, and Yang Ming noticed the narrow stairs going up.

The walls of the stairs were dirty and filled with various advertisements. Yang Ming was shocked when he saw those advertisements.

This is actually Hong Kong, because judging from those advertisements, everything is illegal.

Arriving at the fifth floor.

After Lai Guowen knocked on the door.

Someone opened it inside.

Lai Guowen went in first.

"Mr. Yang, please come in."

Yang Ming went in, and when he saw the inside, he was really shocked.

Because what he saw inside was actually a cage.

In each cage, there were two people sleeping in it, old people, middle-aged people, all men. In this narrow cage, in fact, a person can't lie down completely straight, that is to say, if you want to sleep, you can only lie half-lying or leaning against the side to sleep.

It may not be a problem in the short term, but in the long term, the waist will definitely be bent.

"Sir Yang, this is where we live." Lai Guowen said.

Zhou Kaixuan on the side said: "Boss, this should be the cage house in Hong Kong."

Maybe many people don't know what a cage house is.

What they saw just now is a cage house.

Cage houses in Hong Kong are also commonly known as "bed houses". They are mainly distributed in old buildings such as Kowloon. The residents are generally new immigrants or the elderly. They are a group of old, weak and poor people at the bottom of society living in a "slum" like a can. The beds are surrounded by wire mesh, like cages. In addition to beds, there are also various daily necessities in the "cages".

These people living in "cages" are vividly called "cage people".

"Cage houses" are slums like canned sardines. Many old, weak and poor people gather in the beds of old buildings, each surrounded by wire mesh. A bed is like a cage, so "cage people" got their name.

In the 1950s and 1960s, living in wooden houses was an important way for the poor in Hong Kong to solve the housing problem.

At that time, there were 300,000 wooden house residents, half of whom were families born in Hong Kong, or had lived in Hong Kong before 1946.

In the 1960s, the number of wooden house residents increased to 800,000.

In the mountainous area, every 500 people living in wooden houses use a public water pipe, and 100 people share a wooden manure pit. There is garbage everywhere, sewage is flowing, and the stench is overwhelming.

In 1971, a Hong Kong newspaper reported that 50 people lived in a 15-foot by 35-foot building in Kowloon, and each person occupied an average of 10.5 square feet, which is not even as big as a coffin.

In Kowloon Walled City, there are tens of thousands of people living in 27,000 square meters, most of whom are the poorest or new immigrants from the mainland.

There are also some elderly people who have always lived in Kowloon Walled City.

They have no income, so they can only live in the place where they live.

Yang Ming took a closer look. The area here may not even be 50 square meters. There are actually ten iron cages here, and two people live in each iron cage, which means 20 people live in 50 square meters, which means 2.5 square meters per person.

Yang Ming really couldn't believe it.

When Yang Ming came to Hong Kong in his previous life, he knew that at that time, there were still more than 100,000 people, or even more than 200,000 people living in these cage houses or coffin houses.

Now, when he saw it with his own eyes, he was really surprised.

The Repulse Bay mid-level villa where Yang Ming lived was several thousand square meters, while these people only lived in a few square meters. It is conceivable how big the gap between the rich and the poor in Hong Kong is.

The first chapter of the explosive update!

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