19th March 2023 – (Hong Kong) The Jumbo Floating Restaurant which has a history of nearly half a century, capsized near the Xisha Islands in the South China Sea on June 18th last year. The kitchen barge had already tilted and partially sunk into the sea near the Aberdeen Typhoon Shelter in late May last year, with most of the boat still submerged. Yesterday (18th), a crane barge was seen moored next to the kitchen barge in the Aberdeen Typhoon Shelter area, using steel cables to secure the kitchen barge. The crane barge is expected to complete the work of lifting the kitchen barge within the month.
The Jumbo Floating Restaurant, located in Aberdeen, suspended operations from 3rd March, 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As the marine licence for the restaurant was due to expire in June last year and the group had suffered greatly from the fifth wave of the pandemic, it had decided to move the restaurant out of Hong Kong. On 14th June last year, the restaurant was towed by a tugboat to Cambodia and then to the waters near the Xisha Islands in the South China Sea, where it capsized due to bad weather. The company of the tugboat “JAEWON 9” previously stated that the boat had “completely overturned and capsized” and that the owner and the insurance company planned to arrange for divers to destroy the boat’s buoyancy tank to sink it to the sea floor.
The Jumbo Floating Restaurant consists of three boats, with the main boat designed to resemble a Chinese imperial palace and serve as the dining area for guests. The boat’s decorations and murals were handcrafted at great expense. Two other boats are attached to the main boat for kitchen and seafood storage purposes, and the seafood boat has fish tanks that breed different types of seafood. The kitchen boat of the restaurant had previously tilted and partially sunk, but was still in the Aberdeen Typhoon Shelter area and had been cordoned off by buoys, thus avoiding further damage.