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Sleep Peacefully At Malaysia's UNESCO-Recognized Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion

Originally built as a 38-room feng shui masterpiece for 19th century merchant Cheong Fatt Tze, the Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion fell on hard times as its Malaysian Georgeton neighborhood became a mid-20th century slum. Nonetheless it never lost the fame of its singular design, a unique mix of Eastern and Western influences that somehow blends cast-iron staircases and pillars, Gothic windows, Chinese porcelain, and Art Nouveau stained glass.

Some time after its original construction the mansion was coated with its now-famous blue exterior, a mix of lime and Indigo plant die, and became the Blue Mansion. Eventually restorers took over and began transforming it into a modern half-hotel half-museum conservation project, part of a more general city-wide Penang revival spurred by UNESCO recognition.

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