I’ve blogged before about differences between 1960s and 1990s Hong Kong locales, and am always amazed by new discoveries.
A couple weeks ago I posted this serene photo of the Tai Pak floating restaurant on Gwulo.com to include in their old Hong Kong photo collection.
And because I’m in the know, I labeled it “Tai Pak floating restaurant, Aberdeen, 1962”, and hit send.
The following day, the folks on Gwulo (who are really in the know) corrected my error.
This restaurant wasn’t located in Aberdeen along with the famous Jumbo. Instead, it used to harbor out near Castle Peak Road in the remote New Territories.
I was stunned.
My mom told me she ate at a floating restaurant in Aberdeen back in 1962 and was sure it was the Tai Pak. So when I found this slide in a box she’d lent me, it all but confirmed her recollection.
Aberdeen does have a Tai Pak, but now when I look closely at photos of the Aberdeen floatie, English letters stand proudly on top of the restaurant. But the restaurant in this photo has Chinese characters up top.
When I lived in Hong Kong, few foreigners traveled along Castle Peak Road in Tuen Mun. I may have driven there with a local friend once, but can’t remember anything other than high rise public housing estates.
So what was my mom doing out that way? I tried to piece together her Hong Kong slides. Then I remembered she’d visited the San Miguel brewery on that first visit to Hong Kong. San Miguel was brewed out near Castle Peak Road.
With that mystery solved, I wondered what had become of the Castle Peak Tai Pak.
And that’s when I turned once again to Gwulo, a fantastic source for Hong Kong history buffs.
One guy wrote that the Castle Peak Tai Pak turned into some kind of tourist trap in the 1970s, but the weirdest part of the story took place the following decade.
According to this source on Gwulo, the Tai Pak was sold to mainland China. His brother spotted in it Guangxi province in the late 1980s.
While I was aboard the U.S.S. Higbee (DD 806) in ’69 & ’70. We made two port calls to Hong Kong and both times, my friends and I went to the Tai Pak Floating Restaurant in Aberdeen. I have a picture of the Tai Pak, and the sign on the top of it clearly says “Tai Pak”. Loved that place. Took us a couple of hours to finish our meals, but it was worth every dime! Thanks for the memories!
Hello,
I visited Hong Kong on R&R 3 times from 1968 – 1971 whilst in the US Navy.
Each visit we would take a water taxi out to Tai Pak for dinner at least once. I remember the ambience, fresh fish and courteous and professional wait staff.
Of course I save my chopsticks and still have them today!
Great memories!
Jim
I made it there on a 2nd R&R. I met Arther Duff, a friend on my wife’s family who was the lead man for the escape. He was fluent in several dialects as he traveled as a young man through China.
His brother Charles, lived in the Mandarin Hotel.
Arthur lived with my brother in law in a house on William Randall Hursts wifes estate in Pleasanton CA.
We watched Stan Smith beat Illia Nastaze for the Davis Cup, I think.
In the early 1970’s, I was in the U.S.Navy aboard the USS Juneau. During one of our stopovers in Hong Kong, I took a full day bus tour of the area. Our lunch stop was at a floating restaurant bearing the name Tai Pak. I still have my chopsticks from that lunch.
Much like the post’s author Susan Blumberg-Kason’s mom’s tour, my bus tour also included a stop / tour of the San Miguel Brewery. After my tour of the brewery, we stopped at Tai Pak for lunch.
The Tai Pak vision in my memory is very much like the picture at the top of this article. The restaurant was floating but was not anchored out in the harbor. It was alongside the shore. You went aboard via a gang plank from the shore.
We ate in a large dining room that surprisingly had a huge (maybe six or eight-foot tall or more) picture of John Wayne on the wall at one end of the room. The story was that John Wayne had been in Hong Kong filming a movie (not sure which one) and had made a big impression on the Tai Pak owner. John Wayne had eaten many times at the restaurant and had become friends with the owner. Not sure whether the picture was a gift from John Wayne or what, but it was a treasured item that was prominently and proudly on display in the dining room.
I also learned that this particular Tai Pak had been the original one that once floated in Hong Kong harbor, but had been replaced by a newer, larger facility.
Several days later, I saw the “replacement” Tai Pak floating in Hong Kong harbor. This one was anchored out and you took a water taxi out to eat there. Sadly, I did not make that trip and have not eaten on that particular Tai Pak.
I have many good memories about my various visits to Hong Kong and the surrounding area.
I ate at the Tai Pak in the Hong Kong harbor with several other U.S.Navy seaman friends off of theUSS Oriskany in August, 1969. Our plan was to have a quick lunch and then water taxi into Hong Kong. But the manager and his staff were so dedicated to serving us (we were all in uniform) that we stayed all day and then went back to the ship, full and happy and very appreciative of the Chinese hospitality. I remember the pictures of William Holden and Jennifer Jones from the Love is a Many Splendored Thing. They treated us as if we were movie stars also. I still have the chopsticks. And they served us a 16 course lunch/dinner that was different than any other Chinese food I have ever had. A very “bucket list” memory!
Yes, I ate aboard the Tai Pak during the summer of 1969, from the USS Navasota AO-106
I ate at the one at Aberdeen when I was 13 back in 1969. I still have my chop sticks as well a postcard and menu. We were on a tour where a photographer shoots your every move so we have pictures inside and out. I have one picture that shows me holding the lobster I picker out for our Baked Lobster with Onion Sauce. We did not have any silverware other than a soup spoon and chop sticks. I remember asking “How am I supposed to eat cream of corn with chop sticks??” It was actually Crab Meat with Sweet Corn Soup, but I managed to eat my fill!
Thank you so much for this! My mouth is watering just reading this. I loved all the different corn soups in Hong Kong and miss that! It’s so great you could eat there in 1969!
Hi, Lou Ann. I’m doing research this morning on a plate and cup from Tai Pak and am looking for images that definitely link what we have to the floating restaurant. Would you be willing to contact me through our website – Restaurant Ware Collectors Network – with the possibility of sharing photos of what you have? Naturally we’d give proper attribution to you. This is the link for the contact page. Thanks so much for considering! – Susan Phillips
https://rwcn-idwiki-2.restaurantwarecollectors.com/contact/
I lived in Hong Kong on an off from the 1960’s to the 1990’s. I recall a time when both Jumbo and Tai Pak were anchored in Aberdeen. In the 1960’s one of them was anchored in Sha Tin at a time when Sha Tin was a beautiful inlet and weekend destination for city folk. Quiet and loaded with seafood restaurants, Sha Tin had no Jockey Club, no tall residences – especially east of the tracks. Two and three story residences, most probably pre-War, saddled the western hill side to the Temple of Ten Thousand Buddhas. There was a Lutheran retreat on one of the hill tops. The movie, “Sand Pebbles” with Steve McQueen was partly shot on the Sha Tin Inlet to reimagine the vessel’s trip up the Yangtze River in 1926. The town shots on the “rivers edge” were shot in Taoyuan outside Taipei, Republic of China. Interestingly, the film was not released right away in either location for different reasons. In the troublesome context of 1960’s Hong Kong, the British did not find valiant scenes of Americans pushing their way around China helpful and the ROC authorities did not like scenes in which the ruling Kuomintang were portrayed as communists which, in fact, many of the left wing of the Kuomintang were in 1926. But, not in 1966! I have no knowledge of two Tai Pak floating restaurants. When Royals were in town, it seems they always visited one of the two floating restaurants.
Thank you so much for this!! It’s all so fascinating and I didn’t know that about “Sand Pebbles”! But I think I knew Steve McQueen had been in Hong Kong? I thought there was a Tai Pak in Castle Peak and one in Aberdeen. It’s really sad the Jumbo just sank and I wonder if little effort was paid to ensure its safety. Such a shame.
Yes, I had friends who bumped into Steve McQueen on Nathan Rd. during his part in the filming of “Sand Pebbles”. Also, I ran into Hugh O’Brian (TV Wyatt Earp) twice. Once on Star Ferry while crossing from Kowloon to Hong Kong and, again, a few days later at Kai Tak airport in 1965. There to see a friend off, there was Hugh O’Brian planting a big farewell kiss on the same classy Chinese girl he had crossed the harbor with. Such is Hollywood! Yes, sad about Jumbo! So, many memories. I lived in Repulse Bay and often drove to the Aberdeen Yacht Club.
I should add that the photo of Tai Pak which you posted looks to me like it is from when it was in old Sha Tin. The Sha Tin Inlet narrowed on the south end where Sha Tin Town is located. This does not look like Aberdeen to me. The mountains in back are closer and more rugged than Ap Lei Chau which lies just south of Aberdeen. Judging by the shadows, we are looking east across the Sha Tin Inlet in the early morning, the Tai Pak at anchor ready for the days’ diners. That water was all drained and soil reclaimed to build Sha Tin New Town.
I still have my chopsticks too.
I was introduced to Kathern Song, who was the daughter, I believe of an owner.
She took me to the fresh fish tanks to pick a Grouper for lunch.
My story of Mr. Duff is chronicled in “Escape from Hong Kong” by Tim Lurard, a chronically accurate account of Admiral Chan Chak’s “Christmas Day Dash, 1941, by Tim Luard.
While in the Us Marine Corps I ate at the Tai Pak in 1962 I still have the Chop Sticks they gave you as a guest … the staff were very friendly, and I have a great memory of the that day on the Tai Pak.
That is so great! Save those chopsticks as they are surely a collector’s item now!
I grew up in HK, 1948-1963. I have a photo taken in about 1955 of a group of ten year old girls, of whom I am one, attending a birthday celebration on one of the floating restaurants in Aberdeen. We are all happily eating with chopsticks sitting at a round table.
Thank you so much! What a wonderful childhood! That photo sounds precious.
I have a single chopstick from the Tai Pak in Hong Kong – my father used to go to Hong Kong from Singapore while we lived there for 3 (wonderful) years. That would have been between 1959 and 1961/2. The chopstick is plastic, and isn’t in great condition, and has Chinese writing on it, but I can’t read Chinese
That is so cool! Even though it’s just one chopstick and not a pair, it’s still a collector’s item! Those were lovely years in Hong Kong and Singapore. It’s so great you could see Singapore before it became so modern.
Hi, coincidently found your site whilst googling Tai Pak floating restaurant today. I have been there in 1975 with my parents. In HongKong Aberdeen. Still have photos from that day and original chops sticks. We were living in Kaohsiung and had a stop over at H.K.
I had lunch there with John Arther Duff, Kathern Song and two of my friends on R&R from Vietnam in 1968.
Art led the mission to save the one legged Admiral during the Japanese invasion. They traveled from HK to Burma.
His brother lived in the Mandarin Hotel where I met up with Art
I lived in Kaohsiung and Tsoying, Taiwan between 1959 and 1962. One of the high points of our time there was going to Hong Kong for several days. My dad had been there numerous times and took us to eat at the Parisienne Grill, listed as one of the world’s best restaurants, and to the Tai Pak. Both were very memorable.
My wife, stepson and I went to Hong Kong for 10 days in 2006. I wanted them to have some of the same experiences I had when I was 16. Unfortunately the Parisieanne Grill no longer existed and the Tai Pak was tied up behind the Jumbo so we ate at the Jumbo. We were their only customers that evening. The old Beware of Pickpockets sign greeted you as you departed the Sampan that took you there.
I just looked and saw that the Tai Pak is back in operation.I’d be curious to see if and how it has changed.
I wonder if the Song family was still there
just posted a facebook picture yesterday of my buddy and I from the USS Constellation dining at the Tai Pak restaurant back in 1974. What a great dining experience,to dine where kings,queens and movie stars dine.I have no idea why we were wearing extremely ornate Chinese headgear. the type you would see Emperors wearing.,What a memory
I was Hong Kong in June 1968 during an R&R from Viet Nam. I had a contact who lived there who ended up living at the Mandarin Hotel. His name was Charles Duff. My girlfriend’s brother worked for General Motors and somehow he befriended Mr. Arthur Duff. I received an envelope flap with Charles’s address but he had moved to the Mandarin. When I went to the Mandarin, it happened that Argher was staying there with his brother.
Mr. Arther Duff was a very interesting man. He was born in China and his wife, from a Canadian family was also born in China. Mr. Duff took us to Tai Pak and introduced us to the Soong (?) family. The owners daughter, Catherine took me for a tour and then to the lower level to pick out a grouper from the live fish tanks.
Mr. Duff was there during the Jananese invasion. He escaped to be picked up by pirates and inturn was picked up by Shanghi pirates who he worked with taking messages to the Chinese community in New York. As a young boy Mr. Duff traveled extensively through China learning many dialects and friends.
Mr. Duff’s papers are at Stanford University.
Very interesting! I knew an older German widow named Mrs. Bok who was the widow of a Chinese warlord in the 1920’s. Hong Kong was full of memories of Chinese history. I knew a Chinese man at Hong Kong Land who was a WWII veteran who had worked with the notorious Portuguese “gangster”, Pedro Jose Lobo, whose neutrality and connections were useful to the allies. They saved a number of British POW’s from Japanese concentration camps, smuggling them to “Free China” for which he was awarded a British medal. And a good job I might add.
I ran across your page in trying to identify a floating restaurant that appears in one of my photos taken when my wife and I were in HK in the summer of 1969. It appears to be the “Shatin” (or at least very similar to it), but I can’t identify the location of the photo. I don’t recall that we were in the area of Shatin, but we did spend time in Aberdeen. In any event, I’d be happy to email you the photo if you think you might find it interesting.
Thank you so much, Larry! Your search to identify your photo sounds so fascinating! If it’s the Shatin Floating Restaurant, that was up in the New Territories, just farmland back in 1969. It’s about 20 minutes south of the China border, which was closed back then since it was in the throes of the Cultural Revolution. My mom went to Shatin in 1965 and ate their famous pigeon. She doesn’t remember going to the floating restaurant there, but also didn’t remember going to the one in this photo in Castle Peak Bay. She did go to Aberdeen. So now I’m very curious about your photo! I would love to see it!!
As a young US Naval officer, I visited Hong Kong many times from 1957-1967. I always dined (fabulously) at Tai Pak – I still have chopsicks from there! Hong Kong was the the most beutiful, clean city anywhere – and gorgeous at night from our ship in the harbor. My wife & I plan to visit next year, & Tai Pak is top of our list. Thanks for the info.
Thank you so much for your comment! What a great experience to see Hong Kong as it changed so much during that decade. I wish I’d gone to Tai Pak or Jumbo. That’s wonderful you and your wife will visit Hong Kong next year. She’s in for a huge treat to see the city through your eyes! Have a great trip!
I was there in 67 in the military. What I will never forget is the outstanding food and the breath taking bar with all the colorful dragons and mirrors. I still have the tour menu of that day. I loved Hong Kong and all the people. The restaurant was so colorful and clean and the help also had spotless uniforms. Thanks for the memory !
Thank you so much for your comment! That’s so cool you were there in the 60s. I wish I could have seen the dragons and mirrors, but I can picture it from your great description. Sounds amazing!
According to the sons of former Tai Pak owner, there were different generations of Tai Pak. Older ones were towed to Castle Peak as bigger & renovated ones were built in Aberdeen.(http://orientalsweetlips.wordpress.com/2009/09/10/tai-pak-floating-restaurant-aberdeen/). While today is Dragon Boat Festival, it’s nice to find some old postcards with Tai Pak and the dragon boats in Aberdeen (http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?VISuperSize&item=150836112943). Local historian Cheng Po-hung wrote in Wen Wei Po(2008-10-14): “Aberdeen has been famous for gourmet of seafood. Several small seafood boats have appeared since 1947. Some of them became floating restaurants like “Tai Pak” and “Sea Palace” finally. In mid-1970s, a magnificent “Jumbo” restaurant appeared.” Sea Palace seen in movie Suzie Wong as posted in http://wap.dutianya.com/m31924/145.html. Obviously Tai Pak was not named after Venus but rather after the great Chinese poet Li Bo (Li Tai Pak) (old & new romanized names in Mandarin & Cantonese vary) in the Tang Dynasty, also famous as a wine immortal. Tai Pak Terrace in the Western District was also named after him as the owner was a Li’s Family.
Tai Pak was located at Castle Peak Bay near Sam Shing Estate in the 1960s. (Castle Peak is the old name of Tuen Mun satellite town but Tun Mun again also ancient as Tun meaning “stationing soldiers” & Mun meaning door or gate. Portuguese tried to invade China through Tun Mun during Ming dynasty but was defeated there.) Some old photos of the floating restaurants could be seen on this discussion group web http://www.uwants.com/viewthread.php?tid=5963360&extra=page%3D1&page=10. Photo tp1 was tai pak. The businessmen shouldn’t name it as Tai Pak if they could understand better our own culture as Tai Pak got many meanings but one of them is related to killing as it’s the alternate name for Venus (different name if we see it before dawn or after sunset time). Aberdeen & Castle Peak are on the Western parts of HK. West is associated with foreigners but in 5 elements it is Metal and Autumn season which is the connotation for killing (metal conquering wood meaning life or growth). There was a fire disaster killing many lives when the owner tried to turn the floating restaurant into a jumbo one. He had to sell the floating restaurant business after the fire.
Thanks so much for all this great information and for the link! I’m going to check it out right now. That’s terrible about the fire!
Yes, I was in the Navy in 1970 and we pulled into Hong Kong. I went on a tour bus and we stopped in Aberdeen. I took a water taxi out to the “Tai Pak” floating restaurant. It was really cool. I picked out a fish from the tank for my lunch. I believe I still have some slides of Aberdeen and the restaurant.
Thanks so much, Duane! I wish I’d gone to the Aberdeen Tai Pak back in the 90s when I lived in HK. I’m sure your lunch was super fresh, especially since the HK waters (and air) were so clean back then!
The only thing I can add is that – I was in HK summer of 1970, and on a bus tour, ate lunch at a floating restaurant in Aberdeen harbor called the Tai Pak.
Thanks so much for your comment! Yes, the Tai Pak is still there in Aberdeen. I think it was quite good back in 1970!
This is a great picture. The Jumbo is still alive and well in HK. I love seeing all your photos of old Hong Kong. It’s fascinating to see how quickly the city has changed!
Thanks so much!! It’s been so fun discovering these slides my mom and her family took back in the 1960s and 1970s. My memories of HK are from the 90s, so I turn to your blog to stay updated on what HK looks like now!