MIDDLEBURGH

MIDDLEBURGH DEATH BY GRAVITY

8 years ago I posted a photo and comments about the Jumbo Floating Restaurant in Aberdeen harbour Specifically that

• it was overpriced (and by inference not value for money)
  
• the nearby bridge to Ap Lei Chau was very popular with jumpers, not unlike Brunnel’s bridge over the Avon Gorge.
  
• if you were a cheapskate, the shuttle boats which ferry people to the restaurant from Aberdeen and Wong Chuk Hung offer a free alternative to the tourist sampan that tour the harbour (this is still the case)
  

It turns out that the second point was totally incorrect. The most popular form of suicide in Hong Kong is death by Carbon Monoxide. People buy bags of barbeque charcoal at the local supermarkets, take them home, tape up their windows and light up. The second most popular method is jumping from high rise windows or roofs. There is actually no need to take the trip down to the bridge.

As to the first point, (a personal opinion), it may no longer hold. Even though it is on my doorstep I haven't actually revisited it since my original post - why would I - there are loads of other excellent cheap restaurants nearby. Nevertheless since it opened in 1976, it has had over 30 million visitors,including Queen Elizabeth II, John Wayne, Tom Cruise, it can hold up to 2,300 guests at a go, and it is claimed to be the world's largest floating restaurant (Guinness Book of Records). From 2003 it has morphed into Jumbo Kingdom Complex a floating theme park, which includes some retail shops the Jumbo Floating Restaurant and the Tai Pak Floating Restaurant.(originally established in 1952)

It has featured in many film including Contagion which premiered at the Venice Film Festival this year in September staring Marion Cotillard, Matt Damon, Laurence Fishburne, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jude Law, and Kate Winslet) The plot was inspired by the 2003 SAR and 2009 H5N1 epidemics.

In October 1971, 34 workers were killed in a fire before the restaurant opened, which is only 2 less than the number that died in the recent accident of off Lama Island. This summer (2012) it was locally reported that a German woman had "over balanced" and fell to her death during a party on board. Drink was apparently a factor and if I remember correctly she sustained a head injury. I looked for an authoritative link to include but couldn't find one .

I did however discover the most amazing niche website Touristkilled.com which focuses on reporting deaths, injuries, scams, missing travelers, kidnaps, of tourists around the globe. When I searched it listed 203 other reports of Death by Falling (in the last year?) and 514 reports linked to Hong Kong/Hong Kongers including a recent one concerning a visitor from the Mainland dying as a result of necrotising fasciitis (flesh-eating disease) caused by Vibrio vulnificus.

Labels: MIDDLEBURGH

Posted at 11/25/2012 09:20:00 am by David Middleburgh   Permalink

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