The enduring mystery, what happened to a HK Icon?

**Me Jamie, your host, I am English and I have lived in Hong Kong since January 2nd 1972 - I know the place.**

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Jumbo Floating Restaurant Hong Kong Sept. 2025 Update

The enduring mystery, what happened to a Hong Kong Icon?

My own theory which I am stuck on is that the vessel was towed into the South China Sea to be scuttled so the owners would not have to pay a hefty bill to break up and dispose of the vessel

Anyone who visited the Restaurant would note that a 3 foot wave would actually swamp the vessel, it was not in any shape or form seaworthy to be out in the open sea

The Jumbo Floating Restaurant, a 46-year-old iconic landmark in Hong Kong's Aberdeen Harbour, was towed out to sea on June 14, 2022, en route to Cambodia for a potential new operator after closing due to financial losses from the COVID-19 pandemic.

On June 18, 2022, it capsized in the South China Sea, approximately 430 km southeast of Hong Kong, amid rough weather conditions. The owner, Aberdeen Restaurant Enterprises (ARE), initially announced on June 20 that it had sunk completely. However, they later clarified it had capsized but remained afloat upside down, with rescue efforts deemed "extremely difficult" due to the water depth exceeding 2,000 meters.

By late June 2022, it was confirmed to have fully sunk. In August 2022, reports indicated the wreckage had become trapped on a reef in the area, posing no navigation hazard.

Hong Kong Government Involvement and Reports

The Hong Kong Marine Department, under the Transport and Logistics Bureau, responded promptly to ARE's announcement. On June 21, 2022, they requested a detailed report from the owners on the circumstances of the capsizing, including the vessel's condition, towing arrangements, and weather factors

The department also confirmed the intended destination was Cambodia and noted they had not received prior notification of the incident, as it occurred outside Hong Kong waters.

Several Hong Kong lawmakers and politicians, including those from the Legislative Council, called for a full government-led investigation shortly after the announcement, citing public interest and speculation around possible human error during the towing (e.g., issues with the tugboat or improper securing)

The tugboat involved, Jaewon 9, had a prior incident in 2021 where it lost another vessel during towing.

Despite these calls, no comprehensive public government report or formal investigation outcome has been released as of September 2025. Searches of official Marine Department resources, including their marine accident investigation pages, yield no specific documents on the Jumbo incident.

A 2024 update from maritime consultants notes that the government considered prosecuting ARE for failing to report the sinking within 24 hours (as required under Hong Kong's Merchant Shipping Ordinance), but this was complicated by the location being 690 km from Hong Kong, outside direct jurisdiction. No prosecution appears to have proceeded, and the matter seems to have been handled internally without public disclosure.

Regarding a "news blackout," initial coverage was extensive in June 2022 across international and local media (e.g., CNN, South China Morning Post, BBC), but interest waned after the backtracking on sinking claims and lack of new developments. There is no evidence of an official blackout; rather, the story faded due to the absence of salvage efforts or legal actions. The incident occurred in international waters (South China Sea), which may have limited Hong Kong's investigative authority compared to territorial incidents.

Updates Since 2022

2022 (Post-Sinking): ARE stated there would be no insurance payout, as the vessel was not covered for the towing journey or had lapsed coverage due to its long-term closure.

Analysts noted potential claims could have been possible if insured, but none materialized. The Marine Department continued follow-up inquiries but released no findings.

2023–2024: No major salvage or recovery operations. A Wikipedia entry and sporadic mentions confirm the vessel remains lost at sea. In August 2024, a Hong Kong-based consultancy blog reiterated the government's reporting concerns but provided no new investigative details.

The related Tai Pak Floating Restaurant (part of the Jumbo Kingdom group) aimed to reopen in 2024 but faced delays.

2025: As of September 17, 2025, there are no recent official updates. Social media discussions (e.g., on X/Twitter) are minimal and mostly nostalgic or humorous, with no active investigations reported.

Conspiracy Theories

Speculation about deliberate scuttling for insurance has circulated online since June 2022, fueled by the vessel's financial troubles (debts over HK$200 million) and the timing during towing. Some theories suggest human error was intentional to claim on policies, drawing parallels to other maritime incidents.

However, ARE explicitly denied any insurance coverage or payout, stating the sinking was accidental due to extreme weather and towing challenges.

Fact-checks debunked viral videos purporting to show the sinking as visual effects simulations. No evidence supports deliberate action, and the government's report request focused on procedural lapses rather than foul play. These theories appear unsubstantiated and have not gained traction in official discourse or recent media.

So there you go

I was a pioneer of Private Tours of Hong Kong, putting up my website in 2010 and doing my first tour in April of 2011, I completed 2,324 private tours of Hong Kong before Covid in January 2020 destroyed my much loved business as Hong Kong was literally closed to tourists for 3 years.

I do have some amazing memories of my time as a Private Tour Guide not least of which was the day I did a tour with a famous Princess on August 22nd 2012 and then another one when I shook hands with a famous alleged Hong Kong Gangster | Mob Boss | Triad Leader at an Iconic Temple in Hong Kong and also the Band members of the iconic punk rock group the Damned

….and now we have the ludicrous and enduring mystery of what actually happened to the Jumbo Floating Restaurant that had been plying it’s trade for nearly 50 years in Aberdeen Harbour Typhoon Shelter in Hong Kong, it left Aberdeen Harbour in mid June 2022 and sank a week (or did it?) later near the Paracel Islands or Xisha Islands in the South China Sea close to Vietnam.

Below is my previous blog post in 2024

So what actually happened?

No one knows except the crew that were on the “tug boat” when it sank, there has been basically total silence from the owners of the Jumbo Floating Restaurant (Aberdeen Restaurant Enterprises), the Tug crew | Company, the Insurance Company (if there was one) and naturally the Hong Kong Government has nothing to say - there has been a very comprehensive and rather amazing news blackout particularly given the way social media works these days.

So, fast forward 2 years and 2 months and there is still NO update and even the Hong Kong Government has kept totally silent on the matter.

**The Jumbo Floating Restaurant in Aberdeen Harbour Typhoon Shelter, it's home for close to 50 years and yes, it looked amazing at night time.**

If you type into Google “Jumbo Floating Restaurant, Hong Kong - what happened” or variations of the theme, there are plenty of articles from news sources all over the world about the history (which is interesting) and the build up a few weeks before it was sent on it’s last voyage and plenty of comments about the Hong Kong Governments plans for the restaurant which floundered in a form of Government purgatory for a year or so and then silence.

There are plenty of conspiracy theories floating around, some outlandish and some pretty close to the truth me thinks but in the absence of basically no viable information for over 2 years it is all speculation and to me it makes no sense that the Government here has seemingly closed the case offering no plausible explanation for what happened particularly as on the surface (no pun intended) this could have been a massive case of insurance fraud.

They Government did threaten the owners with prosecution for not reporting “a sinking within 24 hours” the problem is it happened 690km away from Hong Kong where Hong Kong laws are presumably not taken seriously.

I will give you my own thoughts on the matter but it is as mentioned all speculation which only an Official Hong Kong Government Report can resolve and that does not look likely at this time or ever for that matter.

First up, any normal person would look at the Jumbo Floating Restaurant and think to themselves, how is this vessel seaworthy? it was parked in a typhoon shelter for close on 50 years so spared the really rough weather but even so, you also had the impression when you where up close that maintenance was probably not high up on the things to do list and more than a few people thought it was a disaster by fire waiting to happen (The first Floating Restaurant called Jumbo, went up in flames on the same spot in 1971 and was presumably used as a reference to the floating restaurant fire in the James Clavell Novel, Noble House)

But to me and my untrained nautical eyes even waves of 1 - 2 m high would cause serious problems and a heavy swell could be catastrophic and thin wooden hoardings that they used to “stop water coming on board” were about as much use as wet cardboard.

Long story short, the owners had decided to close the restaurant mainly because of Hong Kong being cut off from the world for 3 years due to Covid and virtually all of it’s business came from tourists, the borders where closed to tourists with some of the worlds strictest quarantine protocols so that was that.

Stories began to emerge that it would close in late 2020 so the Government stepped in and for a while it looked like that was going to happen, a real rescue plan, new owners and a new beginning or NOT as the case was…. presumably the Government looked at the cost of making the vessel ship shape and decided the cost was too high if you also factored in the age of the vessel, ongoing maintenance costs and of course that huge decrepit kitchen would need to be replaced.

So it seems that the owners “sold the vessel” to unknown buyers in either Vietnam or Cambodia ( I should point out that no one seems to know anything about the mystery buyers, the whole storyline could have been concocted as a ruse to divert attention ) it also appears that the Hong Kong Government wanted rid of what was a very large eyesore and visibly rotting on a daily basis through lack of upkeep (and a major fire hazard) so amazingly the Marine Department gave it a certificate of seaworthiness for it to take a very hazardous journey of roughly 900km in total across the South China Sea with rough weather always an issue oh whilst pointing out that once it left Hong Kong waters they would cease to monitor the vessels journey (so why threaten prosecution for not reporting a vessel sinking) it was like something out of a Monty Python skit.

So with the plan in place that was that and it left Hong Kong in mid June 2022 being towed by a tug and then came the news blackout until a week later when it was reported that it had either sunk or capsized on a reef about 690km from Hong Kong on a stormy day with 3m high waves and high winds, the owner Aberdeen Restaurant Enterprises kept changing the story and apparently has no pictures or video of the supposed demise of the vessel.

Nobody really knows what happened as no one on the tug was talking to anyone and the owners of the Jumbo Floating Restaurant declined to comment other than pointing out there was no loss of life and amazingly no photographs or video’s or any kind of proof was offered and conveniently the Hong Kong Government had no jurisdiction so they could not get any answers either.

It then became even more farcical with some reports saying it had sunk to the seabed 1,000 m down and others saying it had just tipped over and was floating upside on a reef but there was no independent confirmation because no one was talking or sharing on social media but everyone agreed that the salvage fee of HK$10 Million (US$1.282 Million) + repair fees where too steep to even consider.

… and like I said, since then NOTHING

I am pretty sure the plan all along was to simply sink the vessel in a staged incident, the owner wanted the vessel gone so it could save millions of $ in maintenance and repair fees and presumably any fees relating to dismantling it if they had to, it just had to be done in waters far enough away from Hong Kong to “allay suspicion” … it was a very amateurish plan and with no proof, what can anyone do?

The fact of the matter is since 26 months have passed, no one cares anymore, an icon has gone and has been forgotten

The footnote

Well the other floating restaurant that was attached to the Jumbo Floating Restaurant was supposed to have been renovated and spruced up and would become the new and improved floating restaurant, that is already a year behind schedule and no one is holding their breath, it has a different owner to the ill fated Jumbo Floating Restaurant.

The only surprise to me was that they did not burn it down, Floating Restaurants have a history of that in Hong Kong and we should thank the sea gods that that did not happen given that there is a huge marina just a few meters from the Restaurant.

……. and that is that. I suspect the truth will never come out and the whole episode will become a tiny foot note in the history books and no more will people think of that enduring mystery.

ps and just when you thought I had finished - there is of course a possibility (remember we have no visual proof that the Jumbo Floating Restaurant sank 690km from Hong Kong) that it will turn up on a river or such in Cambodia or Vietnam as a restaurant | casino, that will not surprise me at all, strange things happen in Asia all the time!

The second floating restaurant which was attached to the Jumbo in the foreground did not make the fateful journey but is way behind schedule with it's apparent renovation and the owners last stated well over a year ago in 2023 that it would re open in Q3 of 2024 - we are obviously not holding our breath but it will be fabulous if it does. For the record this is the Tai Pak Floating Restaurant which closed over 10 years ago and was | is the sister ship to the Jumbo Floating Restaurant.

Anyway, I digress as usual.

…. oh and most people do not realise that every now and then these big floating restaurants have to be towed out to the South China Sea to undergo a seaworthiness test and get the certificate which allows them to float in Aberdeen Harbour Typhoon Shelter.

You can see from the images that a 1m - 2m wave might cause huge problems.

The back of the Jumbo Floating Restaurant which were the kitchens and quarters for some staff, you look at this image and think to yourself, how on earth was the Jumbo even remotely seaworthy? and to prove that point, the structure above partially sank when the Jumbo Kingdom was sent to it's watery grave, hardly surprising!

Yep, the one thing you tried to do was NOT to take a small boat (sampan) around the back of the Jumbo Floating Restaurant, to say it was a fire hazard (amongst other things) was a massive understatement, patrons of the restaurant would have been horrified.

Despite the kitchens been in this rather amazing state of disrepair they did turn out some pretty good food.

**The iconic Dragon Sign when you stepped onto the Jumbo Floating Restaurant - would have looked great in our apartment, such a shame it is gone forever (or has it?)**

One of my enduring memories of the Jumbo Floating Restaurant, this amazing dragon sign, over the top and in your face but boy it got your attention when you stepped through the front door, yes it was garish but it just looked right!

November 24th 2017 was the last time I was on the Jumbo Floating Restaurant with my guests from Mexico, I remember them fondly as each family member had their own bottle of home made sauce from home that they poured over every dish! far too spicy for me but they loved it!

Anyway…. I am sad to say that I never really bothered with the Jumbo Floating Restaurant as a place to take my guests, I went 8 times in 9 years and they were very specific requests… personally I went on it hundreds of times over the decades so I had a bit of a soft spot for it, I always thought the food was pretty good but it got to be very expensive and eventually service suffered and then Covid happened but I will always remember the great times my guests had on the Jumbo Floating Restaurant, they loved the place and in the end for me, that is all that mattered.