The iconic Jumbo Floating Restaurant and the Tai Pak Floating Restaurant, currently closed due to coronavirus, are popular with celebrities, locals and tourists, and have featured in many movies like the James Bond film, The Man With the Golden Gun
Hong Kong's Jumbo Kingdom floating restaurants in Aberdeen Harbour is another victim of the coronavirus, having been forced to close its doors for the immediate future.
The iconic Jumbo Floating Restaurant and the Tai Pak Floating Restaurant are popular with tourists, and many Hongkongers will have fond memories of eating there.
The Jumbo Floating Restaurant was opened in 1976 by Macau casino tycoon Stanley Ho Hung-sun, and is operated by Melco's subsidiary Aberdeen Restaurant Enterprises. It acquired the Tai Pak Floating Restaurant in 1987.
The history of Hong Kong's floating restaurants can be traced back to the 1920s. These restaurants, which were mainly near Wu Nam Street in Aberdeen Harbour before land reclamation in 1978, were initially run by boat-dwelling Tanka people. They served Chinese and seafood dishes mainly for rich businessmen, and occasionally for Tanka's birthdays and wedding banquets. You needed a reservation in those days, and no walk-ins were entertained.
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Aberdeen's floating restaurants gradually became a favourite spot for seafood and soon attracted tourists.
Let's take a stroll down memory lane and check out the history of the Jumbo Kingdom.
Jumbo is not Hong Kong's oldest floating restaurant
During the heyday of floating restaurants in the 1950s, there were more than 10 vessels moored in Aberdeen Harbour. The most famous one was named Tai Pak. It was established even earlier than the Jumbo Floating Restaurant, which officially opened in 1976.
If you have visited the Jumbo Kingdom, you might have noticed that the Tai Pak Floating Restaurant is still there, but it's not the original one.
Tai Pak had merely been a wooden vessel when businessman Wong Lo-kat bought it in the fifties.
Wong turned Tai Pak into a 105-feet-long floating restaurant in 1952. Eight years later, it was extended to accommodate 800 guests.
Macau gambling tycoon Stanley Ho bought the Jumbo Kingdom
Wong then established a second big restaurant in the harbour " the Jumbo Floating Restaurant.
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However, while the vessel was being furnished in October 1971, a fire broke out which killed 34 people and left 42 injured. The vessel was wrecked, and Wong could not afford any further investment.
Macau casino mogul Stanley Ho Hung-sun stepped in to buy the business, and refurbished the vessel.
The revamped Jumbo Floating Restaurant eventually opened to the public in 1976.
Jumbo Kingdom was once among the biggest floating restaurants on earth
Ho brought Tai Pak into the fold in 1980.
Today, the Jumbo Kingdom in Sham Wan, Aberdeen comprises the Jumbo Floating Restaurant and the Tai Pak Floating Restaurant.
Three vessels originally made up the kingdom in the 1980s, when Jumbo was one of the biggest floating restaurants on Earth.
The Sea Palace, which Ho bought in 1982, was relocated to Manila Bay in 1999 and rebranded as the Jumbo Kingdom Manila. It ended service in 2008.
Construction work in the seventies cost HK$30 million, a mural was worth HK$6 million
After Ho took over the Jumbo Floating Restaurant's business in 1972, the renovations and furnishings took four years to complete.
The 76-metre-long floating restaurant occupied 45,000 square feet over three storeys, and could seat 2,300 diners.
According to the Jumbo Kingdom's website, the renovations cost more than HK$30 million (US$3.87 million). A 500 sq ft flat in Mong Kok would have cost HK$10,000 at the time.
The entire vessel was designed to look like an ancient Chinese imperial palace.
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Over the years, the dragon throne in the largest banquet hall and the mural on the second floor proved the biggest attractions.
It took sculptors two years to carve out the golden dragons on the throne, which resembled the real thing from the Ming dynasty. An Italian artist, who was inspired by a Ming dynasty Chinese painting, produced a mosaic mural on the second floor of the restaurant. Jumbo Kingdom estimated the mural to be worth HK$6 million.
Hosting Queen Elizabeth and providing a backdrop to movies
In 1978, Hong Kong's colonial government started to reclaim land in Aberdeen Harbour near Wu Nam Street, so Sea Palace and Tai Pak, which were moored in the area, moved to Sham Wan, where Jumbo Floating Restaurant was anchored.
Before Tai Pak moved to its new home, it hosted Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip in 1975.
During more recent times, international celebrities Tom Cruise, Chow Yun-fat and Gong Li have been among the guests at the Jumbo Kingdom.
Aberdeen's floating restaurants were ideal movie locations too, from Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing in 1955 to The World of Suzie Wong in 1960, James Bond film The Man With the Golden Gun in 1974 and Infernal Affairs II in 2003.
The most significant one for locals was Stephen Chow's The God of Cookery in 1996. This was shot in the Tai Pak Floating Restaurant, where the cooking competition near the end of the movie took place.
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