HONG KONG: Hong Kong’s Jumbo Floating Restaurant, a famed but aging tourist attraction that featured in multiple Cantonese and Hollywood films, was towed out of the city Tuesday after years of revitalization efforts went nowhere.
The buoyant behemoth, which at 76 meters long could house 2,300 diners, set out shortly before noon from the southern Hong Kong Island typhoon shelter where it has sat for nearly half a century.
Designed like a Chinese imperial palace and once considered a must-see landmark, the restaurant drew visitors from Queen Elizabeth II to Tom Cruise, and featured in several films — including Steven Soderbergh’s “Contagion,” about a deadly global pandemic.
The lavish restaurant’s operators cited the COVID-19 pandemic as the reason for finally closing its doors in March 2020, after around a decade of financial woes.
Restaurant owner Melco International Development announced last month that ahead of its license expiration in June, Jumbo would leave Hong Kong and await a new operator at an undisclosed location.
Under overcast skies, a scattered group of onlookers gathered on the Aberdeen waterfront to see it be dragged away.
Watching the restaurant’s ponderous progress across the shelter waters was Mr. Wong, a 60-year-old man who said he had come specially to see its departure.
“The exterior was for many years a symbol of Hong Kong,” he said, adding he had eaten there once 20 years ago.
“I believe it will come back and I look forward to it.”
Opened in 1976 by the late casino tycoon Stanley Ho, the Jumbo Floating Restaurant embodied the height of luxury, reportedly costing over HK$30 million ($3.8 million) to build.
It featured a “dragon throne” in the style of the Ming dynasty as well as an opulent mural, according to the South China Morning Post.
The restaurant’s berth in Aberdeen harbor was traditionally a hotspot for seafood eateries — and fierce competition for customers only cooled when Jumbo’s operators acquired its biggest competitor, Tai Pak Floating Restaurant, in the 1980s.
The restaurant was kept afloat by Hong Kong’s booming tourism industry but its popularity had dimmed in recent years even before the coronavirus hit.
Restaurant operator Melco said last month the business had not been profitable since 2013 and cumulative losses had exceeded HK$100 million ($12.7 million).
It was still costing millions in maintenance fees every year and around a dozen businesses and organizations had declined an invitation to take it over at no charge, Melco added.
In her 2020 policy address, Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam announced plans to turn the restaurant over to local theme park Ocean Park for revitalization, but the project fell through after the park said it could not find a suitable operator.
The ailing restaurant’s fate was sealed just days before Lam is set to leave office.
In a sign of its dilapidation, on June 1, Jumbo’s kitchen boat listed into the water after a suspected hull breach, tilting almost 90 degrees.
The derelict kitchen boat will be left behind, according to local media.
Hong Kong’s famed Jumbo Floating Restaurant towed away after half a century
https://arab.news/pmmf7
Hong Kong’s famed Jumbo Floating Restaurant towed away after half a century
- Restaurant drew visitors from Queen Elizabeth II to Tom Cruise
- Its popularity had dimmed in recent years even before the coronavirus hit
Some Warren Buffett wisdom on his last day leading Berkshire Hathaway
OMAHA, Nebraska: The advice that legendary investor Warren Buffett offered on investing and life over the years helped earn him legions of followers who eagerly read his annual letters and filled an arena in Omaha every year to listen to him at Berkshire Hathaway’s annual meetings.
Buffett’s last day as CEO is Wednesday after six decades of building up the Berkshire conglomerate. He’ll remain chairman, but Greg Abel will take over leadership.
Here’s a collection of some of Buffett’s most famous quotes from over the years:
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“Be fearful when others are greedy, and greedy when others are fearful.”
That’s how Buffett summed up his investing approach of buying out-of-favor stocks and companies when they were selling for less than he estimated they were worth.
He also urged investors to stick with industries they understand that fall within their “circle of competence” and offered this classic maxim: “Rule No. 1: Never lose money. Rule No. 2: Never forget Rule No. 1.”
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“After they first obey all rules, I then want employees to ask themselves whether they are willing to have any contemplated act appear the next day on the front page of their local paper to be read by their spouses, children and friends with the reporting done by an informed and critical reporter.
“If they follow this test, they need not fear my other message to them: Lose money for the firm and I will be understanding; lose a shred of reputation for the firm and I will be ruthless.”
That’s the ethical standard Buffett explained to a Congressional committee in 1991 that he would apply as he cleaned up the Wall Street investment firm Salomon Brothers. He has reiterated the newspaper test many times since over the years.
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“You only find out who is swimming naked when the tide goes out.”
Many companies might do well when times are good and the economy is growing, but Buffett told investors that a crisis always reveals whether businesses are making sound decisions.
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“Who you associate with is just enormously important. Don’t expect that you’ll make every decision right on that. But you are going to have your life progress in the general direction of the people you work with, that you admire, that become your friends.”
Buffett always told young people that they should try to hang out with people who they feel are better than them because that will help improve their lives. He said that’s especially true when choosing a spouse, which might be the most important decision in life.
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“Our unwavering conclusion: never bet against America.”
Buffett has always remained steadfast in his belief in the American capitalist system. He wrote in 2021 that “there has been no incubator for unleashing human potential like America. Despite some severe interruptions, our country’s economic progress has been breathtaking.”
