The owner company said on Monday that its Jumbo floating restaurant, a former Hong Kong tourist attraction, sank in the South China Sea just one week after leaving the international financial centre.
The 76-metre-long 2,300-person floating giant capsized and began to take on water off the Paracel Islands on Sunday after “encountering adverse conditions”, the Aberdeen Restaurant Enterprises group said in a statement.
“The water depth at the site is around 1000 meters, which makes rescue efforts extremely difficult.”
The iconic restaurant, designed as a Chinese imperial palace, has been featured in countless Hollywood movies and was named after Queen II. It has hosted famous patrons such as Elizabeth and actor Tom Cruise.
However, the establishment closed in March 2020 due to the Covid-19 outbreak, which dealt the blow after nearly a decade of accumulated losses of $12.7 million.
Their last operator, Melco International Development, announced last month that Jumbo will leave Hong Kong due to its license expiration, and will wait for a new operator at an unspecified location.
Opened in 1976, the restaurant left Hong Kong on Tuesday, leaving a mix of regret and nostalgia among the residents of this city, whose status as an international business hub is threatened by the restrictive management of the pandemic and crackdown on dissidents.
source: Noticias
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