Properties from a feng shui perspective: Part 142
By David Koh and Joe Choo | May 28, 2010
The Feng Shui of Overseas Union Garden(OUG)
Our tour of the Old Klang Road takes us to Overseas Union Garden(OUG) this week. (For Google map reference, please log on to http://maps.google.co.uk/ and search for “Kuala Lumpur”.)
Previously, we observed the landform in the vicinity of neighbouring United Garden and the Bandar Park commercial district.
The intersection leading to Jalan Gembira is today one of the busiest in Old Klang Road as it has become a main access road to Happy Garden, Kuchai Lama and the Kesas Highway. A few years ago, the authorities upgraded and widened this section of the road to improve traffic flow and it helped tremendously.
This also brought about the development of Bedford Business Park across the highway, on a strip of land between the main road and the Klang River. From a property developer’s point of view, this is a good spot for it capitalises on the improved infrastructure and is strategically located close to Bandar Park, with its supermarkets, department stores, clinics and most importantly, eateries for office workers.
Yet, logistics and demographics aside, is there another factor to consider? Of course, our regular readers would know the answer: Environology. The landform of any terrain plays an important role in town planning. One must understand how earth energy behaves and then plan buildings and structures that conform to these forces. Thus, by striking a harmonious balance with the environment, people who dwell or work there can achieve optimal results.
All too often in this modern world, this is pooh-poohed as hocus-pocus, a relic from the people’s superstitious past. The practice of environology – the Chinese call it feng shui – dates back 3,000 years. If it was pure hogwash, it should already have been debunked by now in the light of science and technological advancements.
Hidden truth
There has to be an element of truth hidden somewhere, and one needs to uncover it. Sure, sift through the seemingly cryptic notes and place in context that these teachings were formulated thousands of years ago. Distil it into something applicable for today.
Then, our towns can be designed to yield the best harmonious results for its inhabitants. Otherwise, we will continue repeating these mistakes and people pay for it with their happiness, health and prosperity.
Of course, our cause is not helped by the many so-called feng shui masters and what-have-you who claim to know their stuff and unwittingly give harmful advice. It is easy enough to pass off as a “master” these days – buy a few books and memorise some nifty phrases; get a lopan and flash it about; and sell lots of trinkets to cure any problem.
The trouble is, there is no such thing as a cure! Not in all the ancient feng shui texts in existence, at least. Surely you cannot expect a mirror, or a plastic frog, or some paintings to deflect what is essentially a force of nature? Therefore, we continue our environology tour of the Klang Valley and bring examples of how modern living continues to be affected by ancient principles in action.
Properties with the right orientation will be conducive for their occupants’ prosperity while those that are not properly aligned are likely to be unconducive for the occupants. The occupants are left with little choice except to renovate the property where possible, or relocate to a better place.
Match to Gua
If property developers do the right thing in the first place, there would be no need for relocation. It would be just a matter of matching the property to the owner’s personal Gua number.
Back to the strip of land between Old Klang Road and the Klang River, this is generally a good place for buildings provided certain conditions are adhered to. For example, the river should curve to embrace the land, instead of presenting an elbow. The concave curved section always fares better than the convex elbow.
There should be a setback of 30 feet from the river to avoid the risk of floods. This buffer could be turned into a public park. Beside this park, build a road and then line properties on the opposite side, so that all properties face the river instead of having their backs to it.
A river-facing property can tap into pools of gentle, homogenous energy coming down from the hills, provided the river is concave. Properties that face the other way are likely to be overwhelmed by oncoming earth energy. Even at a convex, properties should not face high land.
Another alternative is to orientate buildings to follow the flow of the river. Buildings that face upstream are considered unconducive because they “trap” detritus coming downstream. This tends to create a lot of mental disturbances – stress, difficulty in making good decisions and being plain stupid, among others.
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The intersection leading to Jalan Gembira is one of the busiest in Old Klang Road.
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Good directions
Thus, the best directions to face for properties in Bedford Business Park are south-west, west or north-west. Even then, the effect is not as good as other parts of the Klang River because this river flows in a convex at this point. Still, they will do relatively better than properties facing other directions here.
A relatively new direct selling company is also based here. It started a few years back and was successful enough to relocate to its present premises here. This location raises its profile significantly and by all accounts, the company should be on the rise. However, the direction the building faces is not very conducive and we wonder if this has any impact on its performance.
The Klang River curves in an embrace further down, where the Petaling Police Station is located. Here, there is the very visible Wisma Rockwills, some apartments and a very old Tamil school, SJK (T) Saraswathy. To best capitalise on the landform, properties here should face the river or follow its flow. However, many of these buildings face the main road and away from the river.
Rockwills gained quite a reputation as a pioneer in the wills and trustee business. Like the direct selling company, its success also prompted it to move here to its own “wisma”. As a standalone building, it has the flexibility to relocate its main entrance to face the river.
Overseas Union Garden (OUG)
The entrance to OUG – Jalan Gembira – is notorious for traffic jams caused by vehicles trying to criss-cross each other’s path and making turns on opposite sides of the road. It also has a very noticeable incline.
The road sits on a ridge as it climbs up another ridge. Then as it runs to Jalan Sepadu, it dips down again. OUG sits on hilly terrain which is part of a terminating claw that sprawls across Taman Desa, Kuchai Lama and United Garden.
This claw forks at several points to create smaller hill ranges. There is a ridge running along Jalan Hujan Emas. Another fork comes out along Jalan Nyaman, and branches off at Jalan Awan Besar toward Taman Tan Yew Lai.
Constructing properties on hilly terrain is always a challenge as one has to be mindful to orientate them properly. It is not encouraged to build houses at the peak of a hill, particularly a steep one. This is because earth energy originates from the peak. Houses here do not receive any energy. Instead, they contribute (and lose) their own energy.
Properties built on slopes should be oriented downhill so that they do not meet the oncoming energy head-on. They should face downhill and thus have their backs shield them.
Golden rain
Jalan Hujan Emas used to be the main road into OUG and there were also several connecting roads to Happy Garden. The traffic used to be heavy on this narrow and long road until access from Jalan Gembira was closed. The much-wider Jalan Awan Besar is now the main road.
To accommodate the terrain, Jalan Hujan and Lorong Hujan Emas 1 through 3 are dead-end streets. This creates a new problem as properties do not usually fare well at dead-end streets. In such situations, the movement of human traffic is limited and cannot circulate. This stagnation is likely to cause deterioration to the properties concerned.
Properties at the end of such streets often fare poorly compared to those at the entrance of the streets. The condition is further exacerbated if they face uphill.
Although SK Seri Mega is located along the dead-end Jalan Hujan, it is spared its effects because of Jalan Lingkungan Hujan which rings the premises. However, the orientation of the buildings may not be very helpful, if they face uphill.
Next week, we shall continue our tour of OUG.
Professor David Koh is giving a talk on June 6 at the Segambut Tile & Interior Decoration Centre (STADEC) on "Know your Feng Shui Colour". Organised by STADEC and Kansai Coatings, the talk is free to the public. For details, call 016-3988229 or 017-8881593.
Note: This series on feng shui and real estate properties appears 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.
Related stories by Master David Koh and Joe Choo:
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