Jumbo Floating Restaurant

It is located in Sham Wan and is the largest floating restaurant in Hong Kong. The decoration inside and outside the restaurant has spent over 30 million dollars to construct. It is renowned for its seafood and Chinese-influenced designs that mimicked the Ming Dynasty palaces.

Before transforming into the Jumbo Kingdom, there were only floating Chinese restaurants in the 1920s. It was opened by local fishermen and sea residents, which targeted local people and close family members, not intended to serve outsiders. When this kind of restaurant started to increase, people from other districts began to come, making this format of restaurants more open to the public.

In the 1940s, Yue Lei Tai Floating Restaurant was founded. It was a renowned Chinese restaurant in Aberdeen, and its original purpose was to spread Christan thoughts, build ships, and host weddings for fishermen. Through hosting a wedding banquet, this restaurant gained more popularity and shifted from a restaurant located at the coast to a floating seafood restaurant after the second World War.

During the 1950s, Hong Kong's economy started to recover from the war. Leading to people being more capable of affording luxury seafood restaurants. Three Chinese restaurants then cooperated to create the Tai Pak Seafood Floating Restaurant, which only consists of a wooden panel on land, and later changed to a two stories high Chinese palace-like design since their business has skyrocketed. The new designs and format did attract many Western and Japanese tourists to visit.

In the late 60s, some investors saw the opportunity in floating seafood restaurants and decided to build the Jumbo Seafood Restaurant, which is larger than Tai Pak, planning to make a fortune through using a similar format. It was intended to be located in Shum Wan, Aberdeen, which is its current location.

However, before the construction process was finished, a severe fire occurred in 1971. The soldering process enlightened the plastic, wood board, and paint nearby, causing a level 4 fire at the end, which had over 30 people die and 24 people got hurt due to the incident.

After the fire, investors including Ho Hung Sun also known as the gambling king took over the development of the Jumbo restaurant. In 1975, the repair was completed after four years and was officially opened in 1976 October. Since the reclamation process was initiated by the government, Tai Pak restaurant had to move to Aberdeen. And later in 2003, the construction started and merged both floating seafood restaurants, attempting to create a new brand image for itself.

The opening of the Jumbo restaurant attracted many high-ranked officials and international celebrities(i.e Elizabeth II and Tom Cruise

), becoming one of the must-see sites in Hong Kong. Many fishermen in Aberdeen provided fresh lobsters and fish to the restaurant.

Unfortunately, this restaurant was closed until further notice due to the current pandemic situation, as workers were reduced from 120 to 60 in 2020.