Photo of the day No. 38 - Aberdeen in Hong Kong 1970
Aberdeen is NO longer a Floating Fishing Village in 2025
Me Jamie, your host, I am English and I have lived in Hong Kong for 53 years - I know the place.
I have personally completed 2,300+ Private Tours and Experiences (over 6,000+ guests) since April 2011 and I am considered one of the finest Private Tour Guides in Asia.
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Photo of the day No. 38 - Aberdeen in Hong Kong 1970
Aberdeen is NO longer a Floating Fishing Village in 2025
Aberdeen in 1970
click on the image to enlarge
Marketing commentary selling tours in Aberdeen in 2025
“Aberdeen, a distinctive neighborhood in Hong Kong, captivates visitors with its unique blend of traditional fishing village charm and modern city life. Famed for its floating village and seafood, Aberdeen's typhoon shelter is a sight to behold, housing hundreds of junks and sampans, while the Jumbo Kingdom, the world's largest floating restaurant, offers an unforgettable dining experience. The Aberdeen Promenade, a waterfront pathway, provides a serene spot for relaxing strolls with stunning views of the harbor. “
Typically gushing commentary from bloggers
Located between Aberdeen - a town located on the southwest coast of Hong Kong Island - and Ap Lei Chau - or Aberdeen Island - Aberdeen Harbour is one of the city's nine natural harbours.Historically one of the most important fishing ports in Hong Kong, the area retains the feel of a traditional fishing village. Its roots can still be seen today in the Aberdeen Floating Village, where some 600 junks are home to around 6000 people. The houseboats provide a striking contrast to the modern skyscrapers behind them.”
I am noted for my fairly blunt comments on certain matters in Hong Kong, I feel that after living here for 53 years and counting I have earned the right to say my piece, I have been married to a local lady for 40 years + and we have 3 sons, all adults, 2 still living in Hong Kong and one in London.
I should also point out that in the early 1980’s we lived in Aberdeen for quite some time, if you look at the image below we lived in an apartment right next to the pink green blue building in the bottom left hand side of the image, back then they where new apartments!
I am also pretty good at writing marketing blurb as well but Aberdeen for many years now has stifled my creative juices, it has lost something but at least I still have memories and I do not for a second dispute the notion that historically it was one of the most important fishing ports in Hong Kong but not in any shape or form does it match the old Aberdeen of yesteryear.
The quite stunning photograph above is I how remember Hong Kong, we arrived on January 2nd 1972 and we went to Aberdeen in the first week after we arrived, as a young lad from Yorkshire, it was a real eye opener.
The one thing that no one ever really talks about is back in 1972 Aberdeen Harbour was more famous for it’s human waste than any romantic notion that it was the 9th wonder of the world, the harbour was a massive cesspool and a real threat to your health., yes, you guessed it, all those boats did not have toilet facilities, waste was simply tossed over the side with the trash and the community relied on tides to disperse the waste into the South China Sea and I am quite sure many people met their maker simply by falling into the harbour.
That being said and as long as you where careful it was always a treat to visit there, it was a visual and audio treat! and I have had guests who visited Aberdeen in the 1970’s and where quite shocked at how bland it has become.
Aberdeen in 2025
click on the image to enlarge
The image above is how Aberdeen Harbour looks today and clearly bears no resemblance to 1970 and I far as I am concerned it is NOT a floating fishing village, it lost that title decades ago, whilst it is true to say that some people still live on boats (there is fancy marina beyond the bridge and out of sight) 600 junks housing 6,000 people is far fetched to say the least (and it implies an average of 10 people living on each boat, this is nonsense) virtually everyone now lives in on land apartments in the large residential blocks that now dominate Aberdeen.
Amazingly a lot of tour companies still neglect to mention the demise of the world famous Jumbo Kingdom Floating Restaurant which sank in the South China Sea in June 2022. You can read my popular blog post about that event, see link below.
From my perspective the Jumbo Floating Restaurant was as iconic as they come and it always defined Aberdeen Harbour and now that it is gone, it is a shadow of it’s former self, a replacement restaurant which was moored next door was supposed to have been refurbished and reopened in 2023, we are still waiting for that event.
I had been on the Jumbo hundreds of times over the decades but surprisingly only 9 times as a private tour guide, by 2011 the restaurant had long gained the moniker “tourist trap” and it could not shake the tag which was a shame as it was terrific most of the time.
As a private tour guide I rarely took guests to Aberdeen as I simply thought it was not worth the time and the effort and it’s tourist trap reputation was always evident by the Big Bus Company dropping off 50 - 100 passengers every 30 minutes and many would take a tourist sampan around the harbour piloted by a toothless old hag with zero English, to me is just reminded me on how far Aberdeen had declined and I still feel that way today.
Some of my great friends who also do Private Tours, still run tours to Aberdeen and they are much much better than most tours on offer particularly those listed on Tripadvisor and Viator - click on the link below for the Hong Kong Greeters Aberdeen Tour
The Iconic Jumbo Floating Restaurant in Aberdeen Harbour that sank on a reef during a storm of sorts in 2022 in the South China Sea near Cambodia.
click on the image to enlarge
… and not quite finally this is the one Hong Kong book I like to recommend to people if they want to get a feel of Hong Kong, it is readily available online at Amazon etc and for me, the best book I have read and I have worn out 3 hard copies so far.
James Clavell wrote a classic and it is a long read and pretty much everything that happens in the book happened in real life and I have a personal connection to those events, although the book was set in 1963, some of the events actually happened after 1972 when we arrived.
In a nutshell, James Clavell nailed it with this book, his understanding of Hong Kong Culture is quite amazing
You might also like the tv mini series Noble House from 1988 with Pierce Brosnan, that was also very entertaining.
Most people have heard of the movies Tom Raider with Angelina Jolie as Lara Croft, forget those movies and watch the 2018 version of the movie with Alicia Vikander as Lara Croft, they have quite an interesting 10 minute scene in Aberdeen Harbour and the set they built was really amazing (I am still not quite sure how they pulled it off) but they also nailed how Aberdeen Harbour used to look in the 1970’s but in a 2018 timeline.
If Aberdeen Harbour looked like the Tomb Raider movie set and we had another open floating restaurant, well that would be really something.
© Jamie Lloyd | J3 Consultants Hong Kong | J3 Private Tours Hong Kong |
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