Next China: A Jumbo Mystery
Signage for the Jumbo Floating Restaurant is illuminated at a pier at the Aberdeen South Typhoon Shelter in Hong Kong on Jan. 17, 2020.
Hong Kong’s Jumbo Floating Restaurant — a once-popular tourist attraction that counted Queen Elizabeth II and Tom Cruise among its most famous patrons — may be no more.
The huge ship, which is shaped like an imperial palace and floated in the city’s Aberdeen harbor for decades, capsized this week in the South China Sea after being towed to an unknown destination. No crew members were injured.
The Jumbo’s ultimate fate is still murky. Owner Aberdeen Restaurant warned earlier this week that salvaging the three-story vessel, which ran into trouble near the Paracel Islands, would be “extremely difficult” given the water depth of 1,000 meters — implying the Jumbo was destined for the bottom of the sea.
But the story took a surprising turn Friday, when the company insisted the boat had not “sunk,” only “capsized,” according to the South China Morning Post. A spokeswoman could not tell the paper, though, whether the ship was still above water.
A company representative didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from Bloomberg News.