Jumbo Kingdom

Jumbo Kingdom (Chinese: 珍寶王國) consisted of the Jumbo Floating Restaurant (Chinese: 珍寶海鮮舫) and the adjacent Tai Pak Floating Restaurant (Chinese: 太白海鮮舫), which were tourist attractions in the Aberdeen South Typhoon Shelters within Hong Kong's Aberdeen Harbour. During its 44 years of operation, over thirty million visitors visited Jumbo Kingdom, including Queen Elizabeth II, Jimmy Carter, Tom Cruise, Chow Yun Fat, and Gong Li. A subsidiary, Jumbo Kingdom Manila, operated in Manila Bay, Philippines, but closed after eight years. Jumbo Kingdom was part of Melco International Development Limited, a company listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. It suspended operations in 2020 amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.

On 14 June 2022, the Jumbo Floating Restaurant was towed out of Hong Kong to Cambodia to await a new operator. While transiting in the South China Sea, it experienced bad weather and capsized near the Paracel Islands on 19 June 2022. Its operator has denied describing it as sunk.

According to a senior editor from the Hong Kong Chronicles Institute, predecessors to floating restaurants were once fishermen's barges from the Guangzhou and Pearl River areas. They had stages built into them for people to host banquets, sing and dance. During the 1920s and 30s, Hong Kong fishermen from Aberdeen began operating similar barges. They originally offered food and banquet services to the fishing community only but gradually began to cater to the rest of the public.

The Jumbo Kingdom was established in October 1976 by Stanley Ho after more than HK$30 million were spent to design and build it. It was originally decorated in the style of an ancient Chinese imperial palace. Ho later purchased Tai Pak in 1980 and Sea Palace in 1982, operating all three former competitors under Jumbo Kingdom.

The Tai Pak Floating Restaurant was established in 1952, when Wong Lo-kat (along with three other investors) purchased a boat and transformed it into a floating restaurant spanning 32 m (105 ft) in length. Six years later, Tai Pak was extended to accommodate 800 guests. A second Tai Pak floating restaurant operated from Castle Peak, now Tuen Mun, and was sold off and relocated to Guangxi in the 1980s.^{[verification needed]}

Due to Tai Pak's smaller size compared to Jumbo, Hong Kong authorities granted Tai Pak permission to remain as a laid-up vessel in 2022 during negotiations with a potential buyer. It was reported that New Bond Ltd obtained ownership of the vessel in August and intended to renovate the restaurant to serve an Asian-Western fusion cuisine and promote Hong Kong tourism as well as local brands. In 2023, New Bond Ltd said it had not made any final plans for Tai Pak after acquiring it in January and that a former business partner had spoken to the press about proposals that had not been approved by other shareholders. Due to the ongoing litigation that also involves the Jumbo Floating Restaurant, renovation of Tai Pak has been postponed. Tai Pak had its lighting restored in late 2024 and plans to re-open in 2026.

Wong ordered the construction of a second restaurant, the Jumbo Floating Restaurant, by the Kowloon Chung Hwa shipyard, at the price of HK$14 million. It was similarly decorated in the style of an imperial palace. On 30 October 1971, a four-alarm fire occurred at the restaurant before its opening which left 34 dead and 42 injured. It had to be rebuilt after new owners Stanley Ho and Cheng Yu-ting bought the title to the remaining assets in July 1972. After total expenditure of HK$30 million, the restaurant began operation in 1976.

During the 1980s and 90s, a period of great prosperity in Hong Kong, the restaurant was often one of the destinations for investors and foreign tourists. Every night, large numbers of diners feasted on such cuisine as crabs, lobster, and roasted suckling pig. Even though most locals knew that the best food was not served there, its exotic oriental atmosphere helped it become a symbol that is somewhat but not entirely unique about Hong Kong.