Though actually, cute thing: there are “standard” photos of the Kowloon Walled City that are always passed around, and they tend to be the most modern ones due to quality & availability reasons:
But these are from a unique period in its history, namely the end of its history - right before it was demolished. However, it wasn’t the only thing to go; its removal was part of a much wider project to level and redevelop the entire area of the Kowloon City District. It just happened to be the last part to go due to its size and legal complexity. That “island of concrete in a desert” look is essentially a fiction:
It was really the heart of a dense urban ecology of low-income development that had emerged over 30+ years in the postwar era.
And you can see how integrated it was with its surroundings, the “walls” were after all purely a legal concept:
The common photos imo are also popular because they heighten the dystopian aspects of the city, making it appear like a tumor infecting the area. Once you see it in its proper context its place as an organic part of the city is much more clear.