Photo of the day No. 25 - The Jumbo Floating Restaurant HK
The enduring mystery, what happened to a Hong Kong Icon?
Me Jamie, your host, I am English and I have lived in Hong Kong for 53 years - I know the place.
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Photo of the day No. 25 - The Jumbo Floating Restaurant HK
The enduring mystery, what happened to a Hong Kong Icon?
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“ ….and now we have the ludicrous and enduring mystery of what actually happened to the Jumbo Floating Restaurant that had been plying it’s trade for nearly 50 years in Aberdeen Harbour Typhoon Shelter in Hong Kong, it left Aberdeen Harbour in mid June 2022 and sank a week (or did it?) later near the Paracel Islands or Xisha Islands in the South China Sea close to Vietnam.
So what actually happened?
No one knows except the crew that were on the “tug boat” when it sank, there has been basically total silence from the owners of the Jumbo Floating Restaurant (Aberdeen Restaurant Enterprises), the Tug crew | Company, the Insurance Company (if there was one) and naturally the Hong Kong Government has nothing to say - there has been a very comprehensive and rather amazing news blackout particularly given the way social media works these days.
So, fast forward 2 years and 2 months and there is still NO update and even the Hong Kong Government has kept totally silent on the matter.”
Jumbo Floating Restaurant Hong Kong March 2025 Update
For some reason that I cannot fathom (but I can speculate!) my blog post on this subject from 2024 remains by far my most viewed post and I would like to add that the news blackout continues and there is basically no news, no new evidence and nothing to report on one of Hong Kong’s strangest modern day mysteries and we are approaching the end of March 2025.
The matter has had a profound effect on the so called “Aberdeen Fishing Village” in Hong Kong, for decades the Jumbo Floating Restaurant was a major tourist attraction in Hong Kong and frankly it was the only reason to visit Aberdeen on the South Side of Hong Kong Island.
Historically Aberdeen is very famous in terms of the history of Hong Kong and certainly when I was a kid it was an amazing place to visit.
Hollywood has also had a love affair with Hong Kong with our wonderful city popping up in many movies and one of the most recent ones was the Tomb Raider Movie of 2018 with Alicia Vikander as Lara Croft, the movie producers did a remarkable makeover of Aberdeen Harbour it had not looked that way for decades, when the movie came out I had people wanting to visit the Aberdeen Fishing Village and by extension the Jumbo Floating Restaurant.
Please do read my original blog post on this subject from 2024 (link above)
The Tai Pak Floating Restaurant which was attached to the Jumbo Floating Restaurant has still NOT re opened and that “renovation” has been ongoing since 2022, I do not expect it to open anytime soon.
My final point, one of life’s great mysteries is the attitude of the Hong Kong Government on this subject, Tourism is a major issue for Hong Kong and the Government post Covid has come up with many hair brained schemes to attract tourists, under the leadership of Carrie Lam, the Jumbo Floating Restaurant was almost bought out by the Government and had that scheme worked the Jumbo would be here today.
Considering how important the restaurant was and its iconic status it is an absolutely tragic that the Government did not spend the money which is a drop in the bucket if you look at how much money they waste on promoting tourism in Hong Kong, they should be be ashamed of themselves.
Let me put it another way, like it, love it or loathe it the Jumbo Floating Restaurant was a Hong Kong Icon, right up there with the Statue of Liberty in New York, I do not and never did pretend for one second that it was anything more than a tourist trap but that was all part of it’s charm. I ate on their many times and I always had a great time as did my guests and to me that was the point and yes it had a colourful history.
At night time when it was all lit up it was quite magical and a show stopper
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© CNN | The Jumbo Floating Restaurant Hong Kong | All Rights Reserved
How could you not fall in love with the Jumbo Floating Restaurant with images like this, you had to take a small boat to get on board and it is simply tragic that the Hong Kong Government allowed it leave Hong Kong and sink in the South China Sea.
If you still like to read books then I urge you to read the book Noble House by James Clavell (it was a mini series on TV in the USA) the book absolutely nailed Hong Kong, although it was set in 1963, all the events in the book actually happened between 1963 and 1972 and a floating restaurant is a key component in the book (a floating restaurant prior to the Jumbo Kingdom caught fire and sank, it was the original Jumbo Restaurant and the fire and subsequent sinking happened before it even opened in 1971 - 30+ people were killed) I am pretty sure the event in the book mirrored real life.
Drone shows, art installations and light shows be damned, the Hong Kong Government should have saved the Jumbo Floating Restaurant and they should be pulling out all the stops to make sure that the replacement the only slightly less iconic Tai Pak Floating Restaurant re - opens soon.
© Jamie Lloyd | J3 Consultants Hong Kong | J3 Private Tours Hong Kong |
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