Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion is a great destination for Pre-Wedding photography. Built in the 1880s, the magnificent 38-room, 220-window Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion was commissioned by Cheong Fatt Tze, a local merchant trader who left China as a penniless teenager and ended up as ‘the Rockefeller of the East’. The house sits on the ‘dragon’s throne’, meaning that there is a mountain (Penang Hill) behind and water (the channel) in front – the site was chosen for its excellent feng shui. The building was rescued from ruin in the 1990s. You can visit it and also stay in the exclusive hotel. Daily guided heritage tours of the house (in English) : 11am/ 1.30pm/ 3pm - Admission fee RM 12.00 per person.
Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion
14 Leith Street,
10200 George Town,
Penang, Malaysia.
Tel: 04-2620006
The mansion's indigo-blue outer wall makes it a very distinct building in the area. The Circa 1880s mansion built by the merchant Cheong Fatt Tze at the end of 19th century has 38 rooms, 5 granite-paved courtyards, 7 staircases and 220 vernacular timber louvre windows. The architecture of the mansion however originates from the Su Chow Dynasty Period in China. Other features of the house include Gothic louvered windows, Chinese cut and paste porcelain work, Stoke-on-Trent floor tiles made of encaustic clay in geometric pieces all shaped to fir to for a perfect square, Glasgow cast iron works by MacFarlane's and Co. and Art Nouveau48 stained glass windows. The mansion was originally built with careful attention to the principles of Feng Shui.The domestic annex is built in front of it to prevent any road being built to create a T-Junction in front of it; it has water running through a meandering network of pipes that begin from the eaves of the roof, channeled through the upper ceiling, down the walls collecting in the central courtyard before being channeled away from the property via a similar network of pipes, in this case, underneath the entire flooring system and is built with a step in the middle to create a slope (to ride on the dragons back).
The distinctive blue colour of the mansion is the result of mixing lime with natural blue dye made from the Indigo plant. The blue was very popular in the Colonial period and the dye was imported from India to Penang by the British. The lime-wash was very effective in a tropical weather as it absorbed moisture and cooled the house whilst dispelling moisture without damage to the structural integrity of the walls. Though white was the most easily-available colour, the indigo-blue was chosen as the former is a colour synonymous with death for the Chinese.
The mansion was purchased from Cheong Fatt Tze's descendants in 1989 by a group of local Penang individuals in order to save the edifice from encroaching development and possible demolition. While it remains until now, a private-residence, the property operates as a 16 Room Bed & Breakfast-cum-museum as part of the adaptive-reuse of an ongoing restoration project which has won awards from Unesco. Tours are offered in English three times a day to central parts of the house.
The mansion has been featured in various films including the 1993 Oscar-winning French film "Indochine" starring Catherine Deneuve, 'The Red Kebaya', "Road to Dawn', '3rd Generation' and the critically acclaimed 'The Blue Mansion' in 2009 by Singapore Director Glen Goei of 'Forever Fever' fame. The mansion has also been featured in programs broadcast on various international television channels (CNN, BCC, The History Channel, Discovery Travel & Living).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheong_Fatt_Tze_Mansion
William and Sue Ann Pre-Wedding Photography in Penang
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