Properties from a feng shui perspective: Part 148
By David Koh and Joe Choo | July 9, 2010
Feng Shui: Tan Yew Lai Garden
Our tour of Old Klang Road brought us to the hills of Overseas Union Garden (OUG). We noted that the landform is a range of connected hills that originated from a “claw” or extension of the Main Range. This claw branches off at various places along Old Klang Road. Some of these terminate into little “talons”, such as those found in Kuchai Lama and United Garden. (For Google map reference, please log on to http://maps.google.co.uk/ and search for “Kuala Lumpur”.)
Based on the undulating landform, the claw extensions and talon-like features, it is not surprising that the Chinese described mountain ranges as “dragons”. They also assigned certain characteristics to these “dragons”, which influence the energy movement and effects of the land.
The mini-ranges often branch off into different directions. We mentioned that one such fork can be found at OUG, namely Jalan Awan Besar in the vicinity of the shops at Hujan Emas. One veers towards Bukit Jalil and the other towards Tan Yew Lai Garden. The latter is responsible for the hilly terrain of Taman Yarl, parts of OUG and Tan Yew Lai Garden.
Back in the old days, property developers used to find and develop small parcels of land into townships. Hence, many tiny townships were found nestled in one particular area. Their perimeters were so porous that one could hardly tell where one township began and the other ended. This is the case with OUG, Taman Yarl and Tan Yew Lai Garden.
As its name implies, Tan Yew Lai Garden was developed by Tan Yew Lai and Sons. It is actually located off Puchong Road. Its main entrance is Jalan Taman Tan Yew Lai, at the intersection with the charity organisation, Pure Life Society and Dharma Institute.
Popular shortcut
Before the Old Klang and Puchong roads were upgraded, Jalan Taman Tan Yew Lai was a popular shortcut between Puchong Road and OUG for commuters who wanted to bypass the traffic lights at Old Klang Road. This created an enormously heavy traffic flow for a relatively small township and often resulted in traffic jams as cars begin to cause a backlog at the traffic lights.
We imagine the residents of Tan Yew Lai Garden and Taman Yarl must be relieved when the aforementioned road upgrades were completed and traffic eased significantly.
Most of the roads here are numerically named, from Jalan 1 to 10. Some of these have the alphabetical suffixes to indicate their location on the other side of Jalan Taman Tan Yew Lai. For example, Jalan 8 and 9 are located to the east of that main road while 8A and 9A are on the west side.
Landform-wise, the land slopes downhill from south to north. Jalan Taman Tan Yew Lai is also a ridge that tapers downhill in this direction. The numerical roads are roughly perpendicular to it and run in an east-west direction. They slope downhill on both sides of the main road. For some reason, these roads are also higher than the properties built along them. Thus, all the houses here have a high front and low back.
Klang river
The Klang River is found on the north side and it curves to embrace this section of land. An embracing river is always considered conducive in environology. It acts like a parabolic dish that can deflect and concentrate earth energy into a beneficial pool of gentle, harmonious energy.
Properties that face the river will automatically face this pool and tap from it. However, those that have their backs turned against it are likely to do poorly, especially since this orientation also puts them directly against oncoming earth energy from the high lands. This is considered very strong energy and is likely to overwhelm the occupants.
Towards the west, there is a confluence formed by the Klang River and Kuyoh River. Properties in Tan Yew Lai Garden are not directly affected by the latter because there is a hill sitting between them. At the confluence, it is a different story. By nature, a confluence forms a natural embrace and thus gentle and homogenous energy pools are always found at the confluence. This is the gold standard of energy pools and properties would be perfectly oriented if they face a confluence of rivers.
Based on the landform described here, houses that face west or north (even north-west) are considered the most conducive. East, south-east and south orientations are not quite as ideal. Despite that, these houses have a high front and low back, which is considered not conducive.
Another concern here is that most of these roads are cul-de-sacs or dead-end roads. Without the presence of through-traffic to create a more dynamic movement of earth energy, properties at the end of cul-de-sacs tend to have stagnant energy and deteriorate over time.
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As west is a sector associated with the metal element, there could
be a natural gravitation towards metal-based industries in this sector. - Filepic |
No through road, please!
Some years ago, the OUG Industrial Park was built south of Tan Yew Lai Garden. Although there is a main access road at Jalan 1/152 leading into Puchong Road, another access road was made to connect it to Tan Yew Lai Garden. There was uproar by the residents who dreaded a return to the bad old days of traffic congestion. Much to their relief, the authorities eventually blocked off this slip road. This is good in terms of safety, bad in terms of breaking up a cul-de-sac’s stagnation.
To the west of Jalan Taman Tan Yew Lai, there had been recent redevelopment with the construction of a small commercial sector, comprising shop houses at Jalan Datuk Haji and its branches, 1 and 2. Everything looks nice and new. It would be interesting to see how environology impacts the performance of businesses here.
Factors in their favour include an embracing Jalan Taman Tan Yew Lai and the pools of gentle, homogenous earth energy collected by the embrace of Puchong River to the north and the confluence of rivers to the west.
Properties directly fronting the main road benefit from the embrace of the main road. However, this orientation is eastward, which turns its back on the confluence (a no-no); goes against the flow direction of the Klang river (another no-no); and faces a steep uphill slope with a low back (yet another no-no).
Conventional wisdom says that properties fronting a main road have the highest profile and are more likely to attract clientele and succeed. We believe that this may not be the case, with so many environology factors working against them. Time will tell if we’re right or wrong.
High back, low front
Properties at the back benefit from an orientation which parallels a river and faces a confluence. Their backs are higher than their fronts. They are likely to do well. However, these properties also have their backs to the embrace of Jalan Taman Tan Yew Lai and sit at the convex of the road directly in front of them. Therefore, while they are likely to do better than their rear neighbours, they are not likely to do fantastically well either.
A large number of engineering companies, auto parts and auto repair businesses are found here. This is worth mentioning because this area is located in the western part of Kuala Lumpur. West is a sector associated with the metal element. There could be a natural and unconscious gravitation towards metal-based industries and may explain their proliferation here.
Even across Puchong Road, there are a number of businesses that deal with scrap metal and auto parts, new or refurbished.
Three petrol stations found close to each other on Puchong Road: Caltex on the west side, Shell and Esso on the other. The Shell and Esso stations are in a good location, facing north-west and within the embrace of the Klang River. The properties behind these stations either have the same orientation or the opposite. The former are likely to do well, compared to their opposite neighbours.
On the other hand, the Caltex station has its back to the embrace of the river and sits at the convex of Puchong Road too. This is not a very conducive orientation. The same goes for many of the properties on this side of the road. An office-cum-shop block, Wisma Mutiara Puchong, was recently constructed here, next to the Caltex station. This building has a high front and a low back. Its back is towards the river and it sits on the elbow of Puchong Road. These are considered no-no’s from an environology perspective.
Forces of nature
Small wonder then, that a supermarket that first opened here went out of business, replaced by a restaurant. It would be interesting to see how businesses here fare over time. Will they prove to be resilient or will the forces of nature as understood by environology work against them? Time will tell.
This area is sandwiched by the Klang River and Puchong Road. The ideal orientation would be north towards the river or west towards the confluence. It may go against logic to orientate buildings north away from the main road, but it is one of the best orientations. A workable alternative is west.
There are a lot of wooden kampung houses here, many of which have been converted into restaurants. The operators may find the going tough enough as it is. Commuters driving towards Old Klang Road are usually on their way somewhere. They are not likely to stop along the way for a meal. The direction they face may compound the proprietors’ problems.
Some of the shops at Taman Sri Jati are in a much better place, simply because the buildings facing the road also face north towards the river. Businesses seem to thrive on these properties. They certainly do better than their neighbours at the back.
We end our tour of OUG and its adjacent areas with a short word on the shop lots at Jalan Awan Hijau and the relatively newer developments at Jalan Awan Cempaka, Awan Biru and Awan Jawa. These are located in a valley with hills at the south and Klang River to the north. The ideal directions to face are north or west.
This may explain why not all the properties here seem to do well despite facing the main road, Jalan Gembira, and enjoying good visibility. Next, we will continue our tour of Old Klang Road with a look at Sri Sentosa.
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Prof David Koh is giving a talk on July 11 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 016-398 8229 or 017-888 1593.
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.
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