Properties from a feng shui perspective: Part 137
By David Koh and Joe Choo |April 22, 2010
Tricky talons in Kuchai Lama
This week, let us continue our tour of Jalan Kuchai Lama, off Old Klang Road. As we travel up this road, we come to a ridge. On the west side (where the Klang River is found), we can see Lian Hoe Garden and Goodwood Garden. (For Google map reference, please log on to http://maps.google.co.uk/ and search for “Kuala Lumpur”.)
Over on the other side, there are Taman Pagar Ruyung to the north of Jalan Kuchai Lama, and Continental Garden and Taman Kuchai Jaya off the southern side.
Development at Taman Pagar Ruyung is somewhat restricted due to the terrain. Here, there are two rows of shop houses lined by Jalan Indrahana 1, 2 and 3. These properties sit on a few strips of high land which drop steeply to a ravine leading to the Kerayong River further north. This river separates Taman Desa from Kuchai Lama.
These strips of land can be described as the talons of a dragon’s claws. The ancient sages used to describe landforms based on their resemblance to objects, animals and mythical creatures. The choice is very specific, based on similarities in both their characteristics.
A mountain range tends to branch off into smaller hills and ranges. These hills will in turn branch out further into little slivers of land. Thus, they look like the arm of a dragon which subsequently leads to its claws and talons. To the general layman, this would be described as undulating terrain.
TRICKY TALONS
Talons are a little more complicated to handle when building a piece of property. They represent small hills or ranges, but are very close together. Thus, it is tricky to construct buildings here: one must make sure the buildings are not sitting on the top of the ridge, where earth energy flows out and away from the buildings.
The shop houses in the Indrahana roads area are in such a situation – they sit on the downhill slope of the overall terrain but are also on a talon of the claw. Some of them may seem to be sitting on high ground and facing a lower slope but their backs also taper downhill.
Furthermore, the front that faces Jalan Kuchai Lama is on a one-way street. This influences the movement of human traffic and energy. Usually in one-way streets, properties at the beginning of the roads tend to do better than those at the other end. This is likely because there is fresh infusion of energy from moving traffic entering the road. This energy is used up by the time we come to the end of the road.
Of course, it is also possible that shops at the entrance are more visible to traffic and people would stop and patronise the first shop that meets their needs. Similar shops further down the road would lose these customers.
Further down Jalan Kuchai Lama, there are two schools: SMK Sri Sentosa and SK Seri Setia. The location for these schools is not too great, particularly for SMK Sri Sentosa as it sits at the outer elbow of Jalan Kuchai Lama.
ELBOWED OUT
Road elbows are not considered conducive. They behave similarly to rivers and have the ability to reflect and deflect earth energy based on their path. Earth energy has a tendency to disperse when it comes in contact with convex-shaped structures – roads, lakesides and riverbanks. Thus, properties at the convex or elbow of roads tend to fare poorly.
To compound matters, these schools have their backs to the Kerayong River, which means they also do not benefit from any rebounding energy that comes from the river, if any. Under normal circumstances, the better orientation would be north to the river.
However, things are different now with the completion of the New Pantai Expressway (NPE). This highway has a link to the KL-Seremban highway and it runs between the schools and the river. This is virtually a man-made mountain that now sits at the back of these schools.
In a sense, facing south is now better since they are shielded from earth energy coming off this “mountain”. Highways are generally not conducive to their surroundings because fast-moving traffic creates wind turbulence which disperses energy. So, it is a strange combination; this modern invention called elevated highways generate and disperse energy, making the area very unstable.
Further down Jalan Kuchai Lama, there is a standalone KFC restaurant, and the Industrial Training Institute. These are long-time features of Kuchai Lama. Not much has changed except for the expansion of the KFC restaurant to include its sister company, Pizza Hut. It makes great marketing sense as it leverages one well-known brand name with another. Yet, this is still an unusual move as the parent company tends to keep these brands separate.
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| Expressways are man-made mountains. Pic shows the Jalan Kuchai Lama flyover. |
BACK TO THE RIVER
From an environology perspective, these properties experience the same uniqueness and difficulties as the schools before it. Their backs are to the Kerayong River, which means they cannot tap into any rebounding homogenous and gentle energy from the river.
However, as we know, the NPE now sits between these properties and the river, thus creating an artificial mountain. Though it is now fortuitous for the KFC, Pizza Hut and training institute to face south, away from the highway, the area’s energy is constantly in flux due to the wind turbulence.
The institute has an additional challenge as there is an elevated interchange in front of it. This interchange services the Kuchai Entrepreneurs Park and provides a link to the NPE and KL-Seremban highway. Thus, it faces yet another man-made mountain.
Jalan Kuchai Lama continues past the iconic Ajinomoto (Japanese for “essence of taste”) factory and eventually joins the Sungai Besi Highway. Ajinomoto (Malaya) Co Ltd was set up back in 1961. Today, it is listed in Bursa Malaysia as Ajinomoto (Malaysia) Bhd.
The Ajinomoto Group’s business has expanded over the decades. In addition to its monosodium glutamate (MSG) mainstay, it is also a leading supplier of L-glutamine and aspartame, which is used in artificial sweeteners.
STRAIGHT BETWEEN BENDS
The factory’s location is quite interesting. It seemingly sits on the elbow of Jalan Kuchai Lama whereas it is actually on the straight part of the road – the elbows are on the bends before and after the premises. Its orientation may not be ideal based on the road, but its south-west direction conforms to the Kerayong River.
Apart from that, it also faces elevated land across the road. This is actually a downside, environologically speaking. It would suggest that though the company may do well, it could perform better or may go through periods of struggle. Operationally, it could encounter persistent employee problems or technical issues; it could under-perform compared to other subsidiaries; or any other sort of problems that may not be obvious to the public.
One would think that a major manufacturer of MSG, food flavourings and aspartame would not experience problems. After all, MSG is so ubiquitously used in restaurants, hawker stalls and the food manufacturing industry. Likewise, the artificial sweetener market is quite large. Yet, is it not true that MSG and aspartame still have a negative connotation as food additives?
The sodium in the flavour enhancer is known to increase blood pressure. There are also anecdotal reports of “MSG symptom complex” or a worsening of asthmatic symptoms, although these have not been proven by research or statistical data.
Despite lack of corroborative data on the purported ill-effects of MSG, the public is concerned enough that in some countries, food manufactures are required to state its use on food labels, so that consumers may make their own decision on whether to consume such foods.
BAD RAP
Aspartame also received a bad rap: it was claimed to cause brain cancer and cause memory loss; some websites and e-mail flyers blame it for causing multiple sclerosis, systemic lupus and methanol toxicity, causing blindness, spasms, shooting pains, seizures, headaches, depression, anxiety, memory loss, birth defects and even death.
Many claim that safety data were withheld during the US Food & Drug Authority approval process, and that the people who gave the green light had vested interests. Apparently, such claims have been examined and dismissed. The US government declared in 1987 that the approval process had been followed properly for aspartame, and FDA officials even described it as “one of the most thoroughly tested and studied food additives the agency has ever approved”.
It would be unthinkable that the landform of one factory in Malaysia could affect the affairs of a global company, would it not?
*This series on feng shui and real estate properties appear courtesy of the Malaysia Institute of Geomancy Sciences (MINGS). David Koh is the founder of MINGS and has been a feng shui master and teacher for the past 36 years.
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