Aberdeen and the Jumbo Restaurants

We lived for many years on the 7th (top) floor of a block called Eredine on Mount Kellett. just above the Matilda Hospital.

From Mount Kellett you could look down on Aberdeen. Here are a couple of photos during the day and at night.

In my novel The Mao Circle, I have a chapter which mentions a meal at one of the Jumbo restaurants in Aberdeen harbour, and the sampans you used to reach them. There is a short clip of this shot in the 1970’s which was when I was there (and also the period I wrote about in my third novel).

Also some photos of this area which still is a big an attraction as it was 50 years ago

and an example of a sampan ‘manned’ by one of the Aberdeen ladies who plied their trade day and night when I lived there.

Michael Rogge has a number of videos of Aberdeen for those of you who want to see this fascinating place in days gone by.

In 1962 there is this film

A visit to the fishing village by a British couple on 1981 is recorded on their S8 sound camera and they gave us a commentary of their impressions.

and then we have a story about Hong Kong’s Aberdeen Harbour in 2012 – once famous for its floating villages and boat dwellers – told through two generations of ‘boat people’. Today, flashy yachts have edged out the old boat families, and a ban on trawler fishing later this year will only accelerate the drift to dry land. Together, Mr. Leung Siu-yung, a fisherman, and his son tell of their hardship, struggles, and hopes for the future.