The Palace bids farewell from Fragrant Harbour...

The iconic Jumbo Floating restaurant in Hong Kong leaving Aberdeen harbour

last Tuesday (June 14, 2022).

The famous restaurant closed down in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and was not able to recover their business since. It was towed away last Tuesday after 46 years.

Modeled after an imperial palace, the huge Jumbo Floating Restaurant (珍寶海鮮舫) was home to renowned guests, décor for famous movies and for many foreign tourists a first taste of Cantonese (seafood) cuisine in a unique bustling environment . The renowned restaurant saw over 30 million guests during the past decades.

Did you know that the Cantonese name of the ancient Aberdeen port and floating trading village in the South-West of the island resulted 'by accident' in the English name Hong Kong ?

The Cantonese name of Aberdeen is 香港仔, Heung Gong Tsai, literally ‘child of the fragrant port’. During the Qing Dynasty it was the seaport for exporting incense which was produced inland for centuries. When English arrived on the island in the 19th century, their first contacts were in the port, and mistakenly named the whole island 'Hong Kong' after the Chinese port name Heung Gong.

Many people presume that Hong Kong is the Chinese name of the city but in China the name would not ring a bell with most people who are not familiar with English. In Standard Chinese language Hong Kong is called Xiang Gang (香港 Xiānggǎng).

#hongkong