Hong Kong Jumbo Kingdom: world’s largest floating restaurant sinks at South China Sea

Iconic Hong Kong Jumbo floating restaurant, the world’s largest floating restaurant, while being towed in the South China Sea, it experienced bad weather and capsized near the Paracel Islands on 19 June 2022.

The boat sank more than 1,000 meters (3,280 feet), making salvage work “extremely difficult,” the statement said.

It added that Aberdeen Restaurant Enterprises was “very saddened by this accident,” and was working to gather more details. No crew members were injured.

The news was met with consternation online, with many Twitter users bemoaning the inelegant end to one of Hong Kong’s most recognized historic icons. Some posted art depicting the restaurant underwater, while others shared farewell messages.

Others saw the sinking ship as a darkly comic metaphor for Hong Kong’s alleged fortunes, as the city — still largely shut off from the rest of the world — clings on to pandemic restrictions following several years of political turmoil.

The boat sank more than 1,000 meters (3,280 feet), making salvage work “extremely difficult,” the statement said.It added that Aberdeen Restaurant Enterprises was “very saddened by this accident,” and was working to gather more details. No crew members were injured.

The news was met with consternation online, with many Twitter users bemoaning the inelegant end to one of Hong Kong’s most recognized historic icons. Some posted art depicting the restaurant underwater, while others shared farewell messages.

Others saw the sinking ship as a darkly comic metaphor for Hong Kong’s alleged fortunes, as the city — still largely shut off from the rest of the world — clings on to pandemic restrictions following several years of political turmoil.

The 260-feet long (about 80 meters) restaurant was the main boat of Jumbo Kingdom, which included an older and smaller sister restaurant boat, a barge for seafood tanks, a kitchen boat, and eight small ferries to transport visitors from nearby piers.

In its golden days, Jumbo Kingdom starred in many Hong Kong and international movies and hosted visiting luminaries including Queen Elizabeth II, Jimmy Carter and Tom Cruise. It was famous for its lavish Imperial-style façade, plentiful neon lights, massive commissioned paintings in the stairwell and its colorful Chinese-style motifs — including a golden throne in the dining hall.

The Tai Pak Floating Restaurant was established in 1952, when Wong Lo-kat purchased a boat and transformed it into a floating restaurant spanning 32 metres (105 ft) in length. Six years later, Tai Pak was extended to accommodate 800 guests.The second Tai Pak floating restaurant operated from Castle Peak, now Tuen Mun, and sold off and relocated to Guangxi in the 1980s.

Wong constructed a second restaurant, Jumbo Floating Restaurant, in Aberdeen Harbour.  On 30 October 1971, a four-alarm fire occurred at the Jumbo Floating Restaurant before its opening which left 34 dead and 42 injured. The new Jumbo Floating Restaurant was built at Kowloon Chung Hwa Shipyards in Yau Tong.

The Jumbo Kingdom was established in October 1976 by Stanley Ho after four years and over HK$30 million were spent to design and build it. It was originally decorated in the style of an ancient Chinese imperial palace. In 1980, Ho purchased Tai Pak and in 1982, Ho purchased Sea Palace.During the 1980s, Jumbo Kingdom included Jumbo, Tai Pak, and Sea Palace.

In 2000, two tugboats brought one of the floating barges (Sea Palace) from the Aberdeen Harbour to the mouth of Manila Bay, and it was rebranded as the “Jumbo Kingdom Manila”.[citation needed] Much of the original ancient Chinese imperial palace style renovation was retained. The Manila restaurant closed in 2008.

The Jumbo Kingdom went through a major multimillion-dollar renovation in 2003.The restaurant had an area of 4,200 square metres (45,000 sq ft) and could seat 2,300 diners.

But as the fishing population in the island’s southern harbor dwindled, the restaurant group became less popular, and had been suffering a deficit since 2013. The Covid-19 pandemic dealt the final blow, with the restaurant closed until further notice in 2020.