Odd Question... can anyone read Chinese?

Odd request can anyone read Chinese Characters? Going to be in Hong Kong. I met my husband there 40 years ago.... in Hong Kong. The first place we went out to eat on our first date, I still have the chop sticks from.... We would like to go back to eat there. Problem is.... we don't read Chinese....anyone?

Thanks

We would like to go back to eat there. Problem is.... we don't read Chinese

Why is it a problem today, and not a problem 40 years ago?

I'm sure - you will be able to go to a restaurant today in Hong Kong with no Chinese knowledge!!

Why is it a problem today, and not a problem 40 years ago?

I'm sure - you will be able to go to a restaurant today in Hong Kong with no Chinese knowledge!!

No, I am sorry I was not clear. We want to go to the SAME restaurant and we need the name of it and we think that it is on the chopsticks.

The HK hotel staff/concierge should be able to read it and help you locate it.

Although 40 years is a long time and the restaurant may no longer be in business.

what a great story though if you can go back to the same place!

i agree, your hotel person can do it for you. another option is perhaps a tourist information place if they have them or even the airport.

good luck!

Let's see - that would be the early 1960's, on the Hong Kong island or Kowloon side of the former British colony. Odds are that the restaurant had since gone out of business, been sold and/or renamed under a new business name - unless it's a historic landmark and/or family-owned business.

Even if that was on famous Nathan Road and/or Electric Road where the trams run along on the island, chances are that those old buildings have been torn down & rebuilt by developers into 50+ stories skyscrappers with shopping malls, etc.

If you upload a clear picture of the chopsticks and post it here as a linked image, I can probably pull some strings & try to see what our colonial connections of expats abroad know, if any.

It was a floating restaurant..... The year was 1974 and at the time there were two floating restaurant.... there are still two, but one has been built since then.....

Let me see if I can figure out how to link the pictures.

Thanks

http://www.glassclublake.com/#!chopsticks/c24wc

Website I have for selling my lake house that I added a page to with the picture. Thanks for any help.

Yes, indeed - the Floating Restaurants of Hong Kong and still - 2 locations for them. The lesser known in Shatin, NT on the Kowloon side - that was rebuilt and alongside the river, now known as the Star Seafood Restaurant. We visited that area back in 2010 and it's a 10 to 15 minutes walk from the nearby MTR train station.

Most likely, you are thinking about the Jumbo Restaurant in Aberdeen, on the island side of Hong Kong and back in the early 1970's - was still a sleepy fishing village with fishermen living on their wooden junk and selling fresh seafood along the pier. Three floating barges linked together formed the foundation for multi-level restaurants, serving dim sum, lunch & dinner - and I recalled taking a short & "free" boat ride over in the late 60's and again in the 80's. It's now known as the Jumbo Kingdom Floating Restaurant - it's still very pretty & colorful every evening when it's brightly neon-lighted up, commonly called simply the "Jumbo" locally.

There are reviews & photos on Tripadvisors - that should bring back old recollection of memories - the new one in Shatin is made of concrete and doesn't look anything like the old one (as it's similar to the one in Aberdeen Harbour, still floating) and not drawing a lot of tourists. Jumbo, on the other hand, is to those of us familiar with dining & trends in HKG, a best to be avoid trap, for locals & tourists alike - except for photo ops. Pretty to look at from a distance, take your color pix and keep moving - unless you got money to burn & they will cheerfully accept your credit card, along with cash, of course.

As for the chopsticks pix shown, it has the name of a 360 degree revolving (rootop) restaurant - did you dine at one of them in the 1970's while visiting ?? We knew of one on Nathan Road in Kowloon, but it's been closed for a while and there's another one on the island side (which apparently closed recently, from my understanding.) I've forwarded the image to expats friends to help track down the name & any info that they can find - being Sunday morning abroad now, they are out on a golf outing so will have to wait for their findings.

Ringing any bells or whistles, blinking lights or jolting memories ... I hope.

The characters on the chopstick don't match the simplified or traditional Chinese characters for the name of Jumbo Kingdom floating restaurant.

My Chinese friend (I am in China now) says the last two characters are for "restaurant" but she had difficulty with the others.

From Wikipedia:

Jumbo Kingdom (simplified Chinese: 珍宝王国; traditional Chinese: 珍寶王國; pinyin: Zhēnbǎo Wángguó; literally: "Treasure Kingdom") consists of the Jumbo Floating Restaurant (珍寶海鮮舫) and the adjacent Tai Pak Floating Restaurant (太白海鮮舫),

Her best translation of your chopstick is "Xian Hou Yan Zhuan restaurant"

Like many places in China, the Chinese name may not be the same as the English name.

More accurate from another Chinese friend...

In pinyin: "Xian Hou Xuan Zhuan"

English: Fairy Queen Revolving Restaurant

Again, the common English name for a restaurant may not be a direct translation from the Chinese... but we know the floating restaurants aren't also revolving. ;)

WOW thanks for all the help. I have verified that the "JUMBO" was not built in 1974.... I am thinking there were two smaller floating ones then. Now I find a Tai Pak floating and the Jumbo... so one of them is gone. We did no revolving restaurant, so not sure the meaning of that..... I sure do appreciate all the help. We plan to go to the Ocean Terminal which is where we met and eat at a fondue restaurant... so looking forward to this.

So it was no 360 degree rooftop restaurant - expats from HKG said there was only one such spinning rooftop in the late 60's and 70's on Nathan Road, in the Mong Kok District of Kowloon (on top of a hotel, one of the tallest in those days) but since demolished & is the site of a newer & taller hotel & retail complex (near "Boundary" Street and the HSBC Building on the next city block.)

The Floating Restaurant in Sha Tin would not have been easy to get to in those days except for taking a taxi or a passenger car. Otherwise, it would be a ride on the railway and/or bus ride plus a walk to the river front. The old one that was torn down was classical in design.

Both the Jumbo and the Tai Pak in Aberdeen (then, a typhoon harbour for the fishing fleet and locals living on the waterfront) would've needed a Walla Walla or water taxi/sampan ride over. Here's the link to old pix of HKG in the 1970's and 1980's - scroll down and you will find a few pictures of Jumbo, Tai Pak & Aberdeen harbour - double click and it will zoom in for a bigger full screen image. http://www.pbase.com/anubis_photo/image/25855462 - We think you'll enjoy them.

As for the mystery of that set of chopsticks, it referred to a xxxxxx (Imperial) Queen Revolving Restaurant - so it's quite possible that the same owners/restaurant group that ran the Revolving restaurant in Kowloon owned & operated your floating restaurant. Both the Tai Tak and Jumbo has been remodeled & updated, if not expanded and completely rebuilt since the early 1970's in keeping up with changing times.

The Ocean Terminal in TST hasn't changed in the last 50 years, except for a new extension at the end of the pier building for bigger cruise ships to dock. I was there in 1971, in the mid 80's, early 90's and again in 2010 - not much have changed except for more upscale designer shops inside the expanded mall that extended down for several more city blocks - all indoor inter-connected. One of the original movie theater was still there, where we saw one of the first "James Bond 007" movie, LOL.

Did you check to see if that fondue restaurant is still there, most likely not - the Victoria Harbour view is there & the Star Ferry of course, still operating - across the much smaller & shorter harbour with reclaimed land & ultra high skyscappers. If not planning anything else, do consider "High Tea" at the historic & classic Peninsula Hotel's lobby 3 blocks away, and for Dim Sum, next to the HK Cultural Centre on the waterfront (level 2) - and, my favorite whenever visiting, the lobby cafe/bar at the former Regents Hotel, now known as the Inter Continental HK or IC with its tall ceiling to floor viewing.

Whether you are crusing to Hong Kong soon or not, it's all within easy walking distance of everything in TST - and, checkout the 1881 Heritage Site, a former marine police barrack, restored and open to the public with shops, stores & restaurants. http://www.lcsd.gov.hk/ce/CulturalService/HKCC/en/about/location.html One of the 4 oldest histroic landmarked building in H.K.

Thanks everyone.... you have been great.

We were in Hong Kong in 1988 and ate at the Jumbo Floating Restaurant. Loved the ride around the harbor looking at the village of fishing boats and the laundry flapping. Went again in 2012 and ate again at the Jumbo Floating Restaurant. The harbor is now like a giant yacht parking lot. All is cleaned up and tidy and on display in that lovely area of Hong Kong -- but not nearly as great as the old Hong Kong.

We were on the Diamond Princess and were given permission to sail through the harbor as the light show was happening. From the highest deck we watched the lasers flying back and forth making the buildings light up in the just dark sky. Truly a wonderful experience and one for the memory book. In 1988 I was fascinated with just the lights of the harbor and they were also fabulous in 2012 -- hard to imagine how many people are crammed in each of those huge buildings and the drama of human life that is happening. After a trip to Asia, I am always glad to be back to my little 1/2 acre in suburbia.:p with some elbow room.

The revolving restaurant on Nathan Road was the only revolving restaurant in Hong Kong in the 1960's. Dined there a few times when I was still in HK. Those chopsticks definitely show the name of the revolving restaurant.

I doubt that the fondue restaurant that was in the Ocean Terminal is still there. OT is now a very busy mall.