JUMBO FLOATING RESTAURANT

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aukepalmhof
Posts: 7771
Joined: Thu Apr 02, 2009 1:28 am

JUMBO FLOATING RESTAURANT

Post by aukepalmhof » Mon Jul 09, 2018 9:26 pm

Jumbo floating restaurant was completed in 1976 in Hong Kong, designed and built by Dr. Stanley Ho. The restaurant was built on barges. Still owned by Stanley Ho.
It can seat 2,300 visitors.
Wikipedia gives the following on the Jumbo Floating Restaurant

Jumbo Kingdom (Chinese: 珍寶王國; literally: "Treasure Kingdom") consists of the Jumbo Floating Restaurant (珍寶海鮮舫) and the adjacent Tai Pak Floating Restaurant (太白海鮮舫), are renowned tourist attractions in Aberdeen South Typhoon Shelter, within Hong Kong's Aberdeen Harbour. Over 30 million visitors have visited Jumbo Kingdom, including Queen Elizabeth II, John Wayne, Chad Garvin, David Bowie, Tom Cruise, Gwyneth Paltrow, Chow Yun Fat, Stephen Chow and Gong Li.[1] There was also a Jumbo Kingdom Manila in Manila Bay, Philippines, but it was closed after 8 years of operation. Jumbo Kingdom is part of Melco International Development Limited, a company listed in the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

History
Floating restaurants appeared in the typhoon shelter shortly after World War II. The Sea Palace Floating Restaurant (海角皇宮) was sold and towed to Australia.
The Tai Pak Floating Restaurant was established in 1952.
On 30 October 1971 a 4-alarm fire occurred at the Jumbo Floating Restaurant before its opening which left 34 dead and 42 injured.
The Jumbo Kingdom was established in October 1976 by Dr. 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 2000, two tugboats brought one of the floating barges (Palace) from the Aberdeen Harbour to the mouth of Manila Bay, and it was rebranded as the "Jumbo Kingdom Manila". 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.

Attractions
Topdeck (now closed): A restaurant and bar located on the topdeck of Jumbo which serves dim sum. Topdeck opened in 2005 and was managed by Cafe Deco Group.
Dragon Court: Dragon Court is a fine dining Chinese restaurant which serves authentic and innovative Cantonese cuisine located on the first deck of Jumbo. The interior design of the restaurant is a mixture of Ming Dynasty and contemporary Chinese.
Cooking Academy: A Chinese culinary school taught by the chefs of Jumbo Kingdom.
Sampan Dining: Hong Kong dining from a bygone era, serving Typhoon Shelter seafood meals on a sampan.
The Chinese Tea Garden
Pier Plaza
Bronzeware Exhibition
Wine Garden
A traditional Hong Kong-style food area is allocated at 4/F of Jumbo Kingdom, named SO-Kee Coffee Shop (蘇記茶檔). Fast foods such as sandwiches, hotdogs, noodles, soft drinks, coffee & tea are provided, at lower prices.
Popular culture

The Jumbo Floating Restaurant appears in Jackie Chan's The Protector (1985), The God of Cookery (1996),[8] Godzilla vs Destroyah[9] and Infernal Affairs II.[8]
The Tai Pak Floating Restaurant was featured in the 1955 Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing and the 1973 Enter the Dragon.
The Sea Palace, another floating restaurant located in the same area, was featured in the 1960 The World of Suzie Wong, Enter the Dragon, Bons baisers de Hong Kong (1975), James Bond film The Man With The Golden Gun (1974), and Contagion (2011).
It is shown in The Amazing Race 17, Leg 10. It has also featured on the first season of the Australian version of The Amazing Race and some openings of The Amazing Race Asia.
The British miniseries Noble House shows the compound being destroyed by a fire.
The video game Sleeping Dogs features a mission set in a floating restaurant based on the Jumbo Floating Restaurant in a semi-fictionalized version of Hong Kong.
Access
The Jumbo Kingdom can be accessed free of charge, by shuttle boat from Aberdeen Promenade or from Sham Wan pier.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jumbo_Kingdom
Hong Kong 1983 $5 sg 445, scott 418. 1990 $1.40 sg 648, scott 575.
Attachments
Jumbo_Kingdom_2007-03-01.jpg
1983 jumbo floating restaurant.jpg
1990 Jumbo floating restaurant.jpg

aukepalmhof
Posts: 7771
Joined: Thu Apr 02, 2009 1:28 am

Re: JUMBO FLOATING RESTAURANT

Post by aukepalmhof » Thu Jun 23, 2022 9:27 pm

The capsizing of Jumbo Floating Restaurant

On 30 May 2022, parent company Aberdeen Restaurant Enterprises announced the restaurant would leave Hong Kong in June 2022. Aberdeen Restaurant Enterprises Limited offered to donate the floating restaurant for free, though without success as all interested parties cited high operating costs.
At roughly 11 pm on 31 May, the kitchen boat of the restaurant began listing after a hull breach occurred. This occurred as preparations were being made to tow the restaurant elsewhere. The Jumbo Kingdom was eventually towed out of Hong Kong on 14 June, though the kitchen boat and Tai Pak were left behind.
On 19 June 2022, while being towed in the South China Sea, it experienced bad weather and capsized near the Paracel Islands in waters over 1,000 meters (3,300 ft) deep. There were no casualties.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jumbo_Kingdom

By Kari Lindberg (Bloomberg) —
Hong Kong’s famed Jumbo Floating Restaurant may still be afloat after all.
The imperial palace-shaped vessel capsized but didn’t sink, a representative for the vessel’s owner, Aberdeen Restaurant Enterprises Ltd., said Friday. Days earlier, the company announced that adverse weather caused the restaurant to capsize and that recovery efforts were “extremely difficult” because of water depths of 1,000 meters (3,280 feet). The representative declined to comment further on the situation, including what will happen next.
Both Jumbo and its accompanying tugboat were still in the waters off Xisha Islands — also known as Paracel Islands — in the South China Sea, Hong Kong’s Marine Department said late Thursday.
The revelation became the latest twist in the saga involving the unprofitable landmark, which had been a familiar sight in Aberdeen harbor in southern Hong Kong for four decades. Its owner, a unit of Melco Resorts & Entertainment Ltd., towed away the vessel on June 14 after attempts to donate the restaurant to an amusement park collapsed. The company wouldn’t disclose where it was headed but the SCMP reported Jumbo was being towed to Cambodia.
Opened by Macau casino mogul Stanley Ho in 1976, Jumbo drew visitors including Queen Elizabeth II and Tom Cruise during its heyday, while featuring in a number of films, according to the restaurant’s website.
But its attraction waned in recent years, and the pandemic forced it to suspend operations. The restaurant had accumulated losses of HK$100 million ($12.7 million) since 2013, its owner said last month.
Then the owner of the ship issued a statement earlier this week that despite efforts to rescue the vessel, Jumbo had capsized on Sunday.
News of the tragic fate of such a well-known attraction, even one that was losing money, tapped into the city’s downbeat mood. Expats and locals alike are leaving in droves as seemingly endless travel restrictions and Beijing’s tightened grip undermine Hong Kong’s future as an international financial center. The lack of visitors has affected companies reliant on tourism spending, with another icon — the Star Ferry — also warning of financial trouble.
© 2022 Bloomberg L.P.

Hong Kong 1983 $5 sg 445, scott 418. 1990 $1.40 sg 648, scott 575.

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