Vancouver-born photographer Greg Girard heard about the Walled City after moving to Hong Kong in his late 20s in 1982. As was typical at the time, its sordid reputation preceded it. Originally a Chinese military fort dating to the Song Dynasty (960–1279), the Walled City became an enclave of Chinese Sovereignty when the New Territories — one of Hong Kong’s three main regions and by far its largest — were leased to the British in 1898. Neglected by Mainland China and cautiously left alone by the colonial government of Hong Kong, an institutional vacuum opened up, and the city became infamous as a symbol of lawlessness and crime, heaving with gamblers, opium dens, brothels, and Triad activity. While its physical walls were demolished during WWII…