Scenes from ‘James Bond: The Man with the Golden Gun’ were filmed in its rooms and personalities such as the British Queen Elizabeth II or the American President Jimmy Carter dined. Jumbo was, until a few days ago, the largest floating restaurant in the world and a tourist icon in Hong Kong. However, not even an emblem like this could withstand the economic ravages of the coronavirus and, after more than two years closed, it foundered this week while being transferred to Cambodia.
The restaurant. Jumbo had three floors, an exterior design inspired by Chinese imperial palaces and a capacity to feed 2,300 people at the same time. It was built during the 1970s and opened in 1976, according to the South China Morning Post.
For 44 years it remained open in the coastal area of Aberdeen, south of Hong Kong, where it became an icon of the island due to its size and peculiarities, which made all kinds of personalities pass through its tables, from politicians already mentioned to actors like Tom Cruise or Bruce Lee.
coronavirus closure. But all his fame and tradition did not prevent the crisis caused by the coronavirus from dealing him a severe blow. Apparently the restaurant had been going through a rough patch for a few years, and the health emergency dealt it the final blow. In March 2020, as a result of the restrictions of the pandemic, its doors were closed and were never reopened.
In the two years since then, Jumbo’s owner, Aberdeen Restauran Enterprise, has tried to find a way out of the floating restaurant, from selling it to another operator to donating it to Hong Kong’s Ocean Park amusement park, because it couldn’t do against the costs of its maintenance in accordance with local government regulations.
In fact, there were even calls from opposition Hong Kong politicians for the government of the former British colony to rescue the ship, as many considered it a symbol of the city. However, the Executive said that it was not willing to invest taxpayers’ money in such an initiative and that the authorities were not good managers of such facilities.
The tragedy. After two years without finding a solution, Aberdeen Restauran Enterprise announced that they were moving the floating restaurant from the location where it had been for decades, the port of Aberdeen, to an unspecified location in Cambodia. On Tuesday, June 14, the Hong Kong icon left the island towed by several ships and headed for the South China Sea, where it sank last Sunday.
Aberdeen Restauran Enterprise has explained in a statement that, passing near the Paracel Islands, the ship and the ships towing it encountered adverse weather conditions that caused water to enter the ship’s hull and the restaurant to sink.
The company indicates that it could not do anything to save it and that, after studying the possibilities of rescuing it from the depths of the sea, they have ruled out the option because it has sunk in an area where a depth of more than 1,000 meters is reached. This makes recovery work extremely difficult. Thus ends, therefore, the history of almost half a century of one of the most iconic restaurants in the world, through which queens and celebrities walked and today the fish roam freely.
George is Digismak’s reported cum editor with 13 years of experience in Journalism