Blue Mansion

Cheong Fatt Tze mansion or more known as the Blue Mansion was once belong to The Rockefeller of Asia, Cheong Fatt Tze. It was designed with strong Chinese architecture style of the Imperial period with the Feng Sui (风水) beliefs to bring good luck and many years of prosperous and good health to the family.

To elaborate his wealth and power, there are western influences in its design such as Gothic louvred windows, Stoke on Trent floor tiles, Glasgow cast iron for the pillars, Art Nouveau stained glass window and more. The distinctive blue is the result of the mixing of limes with natural blue dye from the indigo plant. The blue was popular during the colonial period and the dye was imported by the British from India at the time.

It is located at the Leith street which was once known as the Hakka Millionaire row. Cheong Fatt Tze invited his friends and merchants to live around the area so that they have a good neighbourhood living close by. He built a row of house in front of the blue mansion and converted it into his servants’ housing.

During the Japan Occupation, Cheong asked everyone in the household to shave bald and dress like a monk. Even though the Japan Administration Center is right opposite the Blue Mansion, it was not noticed at all and the Japanese soldiers mistakenly the house a temple. Many Japanese soldiers put their hands together to pray even when they passed by the building. Therefore, the house was still intact today without being looted or destroyed by the Japanese soldiers.

When Cheong passed away, he leaves behind the blue mansion to his seventh wife and a will that the house cannot be sold until the dead of his last son.

The seventh wife therefore rented the place to families housing hundreds of people to maintain the place until the death of the youngest son, the house was then put on auction. It was bought over by an architect and today it is a heritage luxury hotel.

I enjoyed the swim in the morning before breakfast and stroll through the garden before reaching my room. It was always a pleasure to listen to birds chirping in the morning or watching them hopping on the ground, seeing delicate and beautiful butterflies flutters from flower to flower gracefully in the garden.