A reminder of the Sea Palace
If you have read my post (loooong time ago) about the Tai Pak Floating Restaurant in Aberdeen Harbour, then the name of the Sea Palace should also be familiar.
The Sea Palace was for a time, the only other floating restaurant in Aberdeen before the Jumbo appeared and eclipsed them all. Now I don’t know when the Sea Palace eventually disappeared, but I have been told that it was moved to another country (in bits surely? I can’t imagine these things could be towed, they don’t look seaworthy enough) – either the Philippines or Australia, I don’t know.
Anyway, if you have ever visited Aberdeen – particularly the Shum Wan Road area where the restaurant pontoons are tied up – you will notice that despite there only being two restaurants now, there are three pontoons. One is for access to the Tai Pak, the other for Jumbo (but actually you can walk across a small gantry between the two anyway) and the third one is the spare pontoon that all the sampan owners tie up to so that tourists can hop on and off for the rides around the harbour.
However, if you are slightly more eagle-eyed you may have already noticed something about the third pontoon. Here it is.
Have you spotted it yet?
Okay, it’s a bit hard to spot because it’s partly concealed (at least the English part is) – but have a look above the entrance to the pontoon and you will see this.
Okay, it’s a bit unloved these days and falling to bits but as you can see this is unmistakeably the old pontoon for the now long gone aforementioned Sea Palace.
So now I have a question – were all three restaurants operating at the same time in the past? Is that why there are three pontoons in existence, or did Jumbo just have its own one from the start? I know Jumbo opened belatedly in 1976, Tai Pak has been around for an age, but all I know about the Sea Palace disappeared is that it was still around in 1973 when Enter the Dragon was filmed. Here is a reminder of what it looked like – it was the orange one further away from camera, but there is a much better close-up courtesy of Moddsey on Gwulo.com
If anyone can fill in my knowledge gap relating to the long forgotten Sea Palace – please feel free to enlighten us all.
September 22, 2012 at 11:02 am
Hi Phil, the three (Jumbo, Tai Pak and Sea Palace) coexisted during the entire 1980s and beyond.
I looked up the history of Sea Palace and summarised it below:
Sea Palace
1976 Opened in Aberdeen (according to this Chinese page: http://rthk.hk/elearning/littour2012/r3_book22.htm).
1980 Bought by Jumbo.
1991 Renamed “Jumbo Palace”.
1999 Towed from Hong Kong; arrived in Manila on Dec. 31.
2000 Re-opened as “Jumbo Palace Manila”.
2009 Jumbo Palace Manila closed.
2011 Donated to The Light of Jesus Community on Apr. 30 (according to this Chinese page: http://www.etaiwannews.com/etn/news_content.php?id=1585130).
However, I also found reference that the name of the vessel was “Yuen Lee Tai” (http://www.legislation.gov.hk/blis_ind.nsf/AllVerAllEngDoc/A759F8D9ECF690624825726B0025883A?OpenDocument&bt=0). Chinese version of the document gives the name as 魚利泰.
I understand that there was a floating restaurant in Aberdeen called 漁利泰 (Yue Lee Tai) in the 1960s (http://www.3.hk-pub.com/forum/viewthread.php?tid=2866404).
The names Yuen Lee Tai (魚利泰) and Yue Lee Tai (漁利泰) are similar but not identical. The first character means “fish” in the former and “fishing” in the latter. So was Sea Palace renamed or converted from Yue Lee Tai? The mystery continues.
September 22, 2012 at 11:18 am
More info! According to Ta Kung Pao on July 9, 1958, Sea Palace opened on that day, and opened to the public on July 12.
September 22, 2012 at 12:15 pm
wow, many thanks C – this is the problem with being Chinese illiterate, I miss (and often misunderstand) many things because I just can’t read.
I did look for pictures of the Jumbo in Manila Bay following Angus’s comments, but the pictures I found (like this one)didn’t look like the Sea Palace from Aberdeen (or at least the version from the 1960′s that I have seen pictures of) so unless it underwent a major overhaul/complete replacement before being towed then I can’t see them being the same structure.
Going back to some speculation, the Manila version looks a bit similar to the old Macau Floating Casino from the inner harbour (at least the shape is similar) so I was wondering if the Manila version was in fact the old Macau one? However, Angus also mentioned the thing had sank but had been replaced so now I am wondering if the replacement was the one from Macau and the original was the Sea Palace proper. I wonder if the sunken one is diveable
Anyway, interesting to know that all three existed in Aberdeen at the same time – this explains the 3 pontoons, but I reckon RTHK have mixed their history up with the Jumbo that re-opened in 1976 following the 1971 fire?
I wonder what the expected life of these things actually was because it’s beginning to sound as though they remained in name only for the most part.
Interesting stuff. Many thanks.
September 22, 2012 at 5:48 pm
Hi Phil,
You are very welcome! Online accounts in Chinese often contradict. Occasionally, discussion forums provide good information if people who actually saw the buildings or witnessed events speak up.
Some newspaper accounts of the Manila floating restaurant when it first got there:
http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2479&dat=20000508&id=gFg1AAAAIBAJ&sjid=gSUMAAAAIBAJ&pg=759,3546774
http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=94610
I found a picture of the old floating casino in the Inner Harbour in Macao.
http://blog.yahoo.com/_DBZOHFNMPD6SXIBCDYZIVT2ONM/articles/49254/date/201011
The casino moved to the Outer Harbour in 1999, and closed in 2007. The vessel is now near Fai Chi Kei in northern Macao.
http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:CasinoMacauPalace1.jpg
A few different vessels might have served as the casino, so I am not sure if one of them ended up in Manila.
To add to the confusion, the photo at the bottom of this page (http://www.uwants.com/viewthread.php?tid=9868533&extra=page%3D1) showed three floating restaurants side by side before the Jumbo days. The one in the middle looks like the old Sea Palace (whose photo is in Post 13 on the same page), and the one on the right looks like the new Sea Palace (whose photo and menu are on Page 60 of the same thread).
September 22, 2012 at 9:19 pm
Hi C – that picture of the Macau casino doesn’t look like the one I am familiar with which definitely had a largely wooden exterior, so I wonder if this is another case of the name remaining whilst the actual structure changed? But anyway, I had no idea that it was there and I may try and wander that way the next time I head to Macau (I haven’t been for 1.5 years so I think a trip is on the cards soon).
I think someone could fill a small book about the comings and goings of all these places.
September 17, 2012 at 7:48 am
Manila Bay’s sunken floating restaurant was supposed to have been towed from HK by Stanley Ho (not personally, I guess). It sank soon after arrival during a typhoon and lay on its sde for may years in the Bay. There is a floating casino there now, but I have no idea whether it’s the original or a copy. Also, I was told that none of the floating restaurants in HK actually ‘floated’ but sat on concrete piles – like the Sha Tin ‘floating restaurant’. The latter being entirely made of concrete.
September 17, 2012 at 12:48 pm
I would be surprised if these things could be towed across open sea, but perhaps disassembled and shipped in parts?
With regards to what they sit on, they do indeed sit on wooden piles and don’t float but they seem to be a lot less fixed to the floor than the Shatin one which is just one big concrete block (not just the piles).
Speaking of concrete piles though, you have just reminded me I need to book an appointment with the doctor
September 17, 2012 at 1:19 am
Phil, it would appear Sea Palace was still located at Aberdeen in April 1974. There are some interesting pictures here which show three floating restaurants in the harbour, Sea Palace, Tai Pak and presumably Jumbo which I believe would have been in the course of being rebuilt at that time following the fire in 1971;
http://global-mariner.com/index111ChineseJunks3.html
regards
Ian
September 17, 2012 at 7:26 am
Excellent find Ian, and some great photos on that site. Thanks for posting the link.
cheers, phil