Shock in Hong Kong over the sinking under strange circumstances of the largest floating restaurant, which was a tourist icon
It was one of the tourist icons of Hong Kong and has gone down. In the midst of its mysterious journey to Southeast Asia, the huge ship Jumbo Floating Restaurant capsized last Sunday in the South China Sea, near the Paracel Islands. Her shipwreck caused a stir in Hong Kong and is a sad metaphor for the loss of historical memories in this former British colony, which will commemorate 25 years since its return to China on July 1.
Inaugurated in 1976 in the image and likeness of a Ming dynasty imperial palace, its three floors rose above a 76-meter-long roof, and the total area of 13,000 square meters could serve 2,300 guests. Lavishly decorated with dragons, pagodas and bright neon, the ornate red, green and gold facade stood out among the yachts docked in Aberdeen Harbour, in southwest Hong Kong Island. Since it opened its doors 46 years ago, it is estimated that more than 30 million people have visited its lavish halls, some as illustrious as Queen Elizabeth of England, former President of the United States Jimmy Carter and movie stars such as Tom Cruise.
With its gabled roofs lit up at dusk, it was so spectacular that it served as the setting for the adventures of James Bond in “The Man with the Golden Gun” (1974) and Jackie Chan in “The Protector” (1985). Coincidences of fate, the end of the movie “Contagion” (2011) was shot indoors, which was inspired by SARS but was a Hollywood hunch of the current Covid pandemic.
For the Jumbo that was his shoelace. When the coronavirus took a toll on the world after the January 2020 outbreak in Wuhan, the restaurant had been battling a lack of customers since the previous year due to the violent protests demanding democracy in Hong Kong. Without the Chinese tourists that ever flocked there, the company that ran it, Aberdeen Restaurant Enterprises, was running up bills to maintain such a hulking and sensitive structure. Closed since 2020, losses amounted to 100 million Hong Kong dollars (12 million euros), a “heavy financial burden” as the owners publicly acknowledged.
The golden years are over when billionaire Stanley Ho, a casino magnate from Macau, invested HK 32 million (EUR 3.8 million) in the largest floating restaurant in the then British colony. Following the tradition of the “tanka” sailors of the Chinese coast, who have served seafood in their junks since 1920, the Jumbo was built in 1970 alongside other floating restaurants in Aberdeen harbour. But it was damaged in a fire in 1971 that killed 34 people. After acquiring the structure, Ho took five years to complete it, spending HK$16 million (€1.9 million) on the equipment and HK$10 million (€1.2 million) on the decoration. In addition to the throne that dominated the largest hall, whose golden dragons took two years to carve from wood, a mural on the second floor inspired by a Ming painting was worth six million HK dollars (726,000 euros).
But neither its artistic nor historical importance has been able to save the Jumbo, which was connected to two other smaller floating restaurants. One, called Sea Palace, was sold in 1999 and transferred to Manila Bay, where it was operational until its closure in 2008. Three years later, it was taken to the Chinese city of Qingdao, where it remains unusable. The other, Tai Pak, will continue in Aberdeen Port, but with no prospect of opening due to severe restrictions from Covid that are stifling Hong Kong and China’s economies. United these ships formed the Jumbo Kingdom.
Led by Lawrence Ho, son of the late casino mogul, the parent company, Melco International Development, has been trying hard to sell the ship to other companies. They must have seen it so bad that none of them wanted it. Adding to the high costs of maintenance, insurance, permits and inspections was the fact that on June 1, a 30-meter roof with a kitchen connected to the rear of the restaurant had fallen over. Despite popular calls to save it, the Hong Kong government did not come to the rescue, and the lack of a third partner prevented a plan to move it to the Ocean Park theme park.
“We have made it clear that the government does not intend to invest in the operation of the restaurant, as our mission is not to manage the said facilities,” the chief executive, Carrie Lam, announced despite the reopening. of the Jumbo one of the projects to revitalize the South District of Hong Kong. Lam ignored this promise, making it clear that “we will not force a proposal that is unachievable or that requires a lot of public money simply because it has been incorporated into political discourse. I don’t think this situation is a problem.”
Professor John Hanzhang responded to the general unease at the loss of this symbol, criticizing the government’s decision in an opinion column in the South China Morning Post newspaper. “This is just the latest example of Hong Kong’s inability to preserve its contemporary history,” the sociologist said. In his opinion, “antiquity policies and the government’s reluctance to support conservation efforts have had a devastating effect on local culture. The departure of the Jumbo Floating Restaurant will be a sad continuation of the post-World War II trend towards the disappearance of local history, leaving gaps in the cityscape as there will only be pre-war structures and contemporary buildings for future generations. According to Professor Hanzhang, “transforming the Jumbo Kingdom into a tourist attraction in the Southern District could enrich the city” because “a new generation of tourists are bored with endless shopping malls and skyscrapers. Instead, they want to visit iconic local attractions. Keeping the floating restaurant would provide a much-needed boost to tourism in Hong Kong and revitalize the economy in the southern part of the island.”
But nothing could change the Jumbo’s fate. Towed by the Jaweon 9 tug, it set sail for somewhere in Southeast Asia on Tuesday, June 14, which the owners declined to disclose. But he was shipwrecked on Sunday the 19th when he encountered “bad weather” off the Paracel Islands, in the South China Sea. According to the owners on Monday, “the boat capsized when water entered it and it is impossible to save it because it is in an area that is up to a thousand meters deep.” Given the outrage unleashed by this mysterious incident, which has reverberated around the world, the company that owns the restaurant now clarifies that “it hasn’t sunk”, only “topped over”. But it remains unclear about its location and why it was thrown into the sea for such a long journey rather than being transported on a semi-submersible deck, a more expensive but safer method.
The Hong Kong Maritime Department, which has revealed that the ship was en route to Cambodia and had permission to set sail, has opened an investigation to clarify the incident as HK01 news portal causes the convoy to change course during traversing and zigzagging around the Paracel Islands. In addition, authorities warn that the owners could have broken maritime laws by taking more than 24 hours to report the shipwreck, which began on Saturday. Pending what the insurance company discovers, which is not yet known if he contracted him for such an expedition, many suspect that the owners got rid of the Jumbo’s “heavy financial burden” by putting him on the bottom of to bury the sea.
Source: La Verdad
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