Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion

Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion, the former home of one of Georgetown’s most celebrated mercantile millionaires, both conceals the ghosts of a bygone era and stands out like the proverbial (blue) bruised digit among a 21st century expanse of ugly tarmac and concrete.

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Join the hoi polloi at one of the three daily tours to get a glimpse of what life must have been like when Penang’s Chinese elite lived out their lives of luxury among the shady tropical gardens that once existed here.

There is a reason it is called the Blue Mansion. Photo taken in or around Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion, Penang, Malaysia by Sally Arnold.

There is a reason it is called the Blue Mansion. Photo: Sally Arnold

In a rags-to-riches tale, Cheong Fatt Tze was born into poverty in China, fled his homeland in 1856 and arrived penniless in Southeast Asia at the age of 17 but by the end of the 1800s he had become Asia’s wealthiest businessman, known as the “Rockefeller of the East”. He made Penang his main home and the opulent “Blue Mansion” in Georgetown reflects his remarkable life, during which he traversed between east and west in the pursuit of wealth ... Travelfish members only (Full text is around 700 words.)

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