Properties from a Feng Shui perspective: Part 168
By David Koh and Joe Choo | Dec 3, 2010
Feng Shui: The Old PJ New Town
Section 52 of Petaling Jaya is the administrative centre of the city. The numbering is quite incongruous with the surrounding sections. It also goes by the moniker “PJ New Town” to differentiate it from the nearby Old Town. Of course, this is now completely outdated with the subsequent growth of Petaling Jaya. (For Google map reference, please log on to http://maps.google.co.uk/ and search for “Kuala Lumpur”.)
PJ New Town also had another nickname: PJ State. It was named after a cinema that used to operate here. It was a two-storey building with a balcony level for “first-class” seating. The original State cinema went out of business thanks to the rise of home video rentals in the 1980s but the name remains, especially with long-time residents. Today, the ground floor of the building has been converted into the Lotus Indian restaurant while the upper floor has been refurbished into a cinema specialising in Hindi movies.
The Petaling Jaya City Hall or Majlis Bandaraya Petaling Jaya (MBPJ) is headquartered here. It has an iconic tower – the Menara MBPJ – in the middle of the commercial district, which complements Bangunan MBPJ across the road from Jalan Yong Shook Lin.
Jalan Yong Shook Lin is a major road in PJ New Town. It was named after an illustrious member of the Federal Legislative Council which was originally formed in 1948 after the Federation of Malaya was established. Yong had the distinction of being the first ethnic Chinese lawyer to be called to the Bar of the Federated Malay States. Yong graduated from Cambridge University and his firm, Messrs Yong Shook Lin was the first set up by a local lawyer in 1918 – and one of the oldest in Malaysia. The firm continues today as Shook Lin & Bok.
Dish-like plateau
The landform of PJ New Town is rather interesting. The town centre is encircled by Jalan Yong Shook Lin, Jalan Sultan and Jalan Selangor. These roads form a dish-like plateau in the centre. There is a hillock to the north at Jalan Sultan where the post office, Federal Building, and Chemistry Department are located. Another hillock can be found to the south where the MBPJ Building is situated.
The dish-like plateau is considered good in Environology and probably helped make this a popular place for doing business when PJ New Town was established. The circular roads are like rivers that capture pools of earth energy, which attracts people and success.
PJ New Town was also popular due to the presence of foreign banks such as Standard Chartered and HSBC. In the past, foreign banks were restricted in the number of branches they could operate. Thus, the branches were few and far in-between. Of course, all the major local banks can also be found here. The roads are terribly congested and open-air parking extremely sparse on weekdays during banking hours. After banking hours, the traffic thins out quite quickly and is replaced by patrons of the numerous restaurants and eateries found in the area. Beyond that, there is not much of a nightlife here.
There are elevated car parks at Jalan 52/12 and Lorong Sultan which are sometimes used as a last resort by visitors here. Perhaps they are too dark and scary for wary drivers, but it is more likely because walking from these car parks to their destination is a little inconvenient. At Jalan 52/12, for example, the car park is surrounded by the backs of buildings. Visitors have to walk around the block to reach the shops. Nonetheless, this car park is popular on Sundays as a trading place for second-hand car sales and boot sales.
MBPJ tower
Menara MBPJ, formerly Menara MPPJ when Petaling Jaya was still a municipality, is an iconic landmark of Petaling Jaya. Construction work began in 1984 and it was officially opened in 1987. We believe this somewhat altered the landform forces of PJ New Town, not necessarily for the better.
A big crater was dug into the ground to lay the foundation and the completed building has an open basement level. It looks like a rocket that is about to lift off from an underground silo or a tower surrounded by an empty moat. This was intended to be used as a shopping bazaar filled with stalls for small traders and ringed by several basement-level shops. However, this idea did not pan out and today it is used mostly for storage. The intention to aid small traders was a noble one but probably not well thought out. The tower’s construction put a squeeze on available parking spaces, making it difficult for people to park nearby and visit.
From an environology perspective, the tower is a new mountain that now exerts earth energy on its surroundings. The open basement level acts as a reservoir to pool this energy but the “gradient” of this mountain is too steep and the energy is not gentle or homogenous. Think of the base of a waterfall. Thus, it is not a conducive location for businesses.
Buildings that used to face the centre of the plateau used to be in a conducive location as they could tap into earth energy collected in the dish. With the tower standing there, they now face high land. Not surprisingly, many businesses seem to be struggling today. A number of them have changed hands several times over the last few years. Pedestrian traffic is also sparse.
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Poh Kong Jewellers sits on higher land than Jalan Sultan. - Filepic
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Civic centre
To the south of the plateau, sitting on a hillock are MBPJ Building and the Civic Centre, another iconic landmark in PJ New Town. It appears to be under-utilised and its car park is used as a mobile drive-through counter for paying bills and parking summons. It is not ideal for buildings to sit at a peak because they contribute to the earth energy flowing downhill away from them and do not receive any in return.
MBPJ fares better as it sits on a slope in front of the Civic Centre. It has a high back and faces low land. It even has a nice landscaped garden directly in front to buffer it from the outer elbow of Jalan Yong Shook Lin and that is a good thing, too. Road and river elbows are considered bad landform and buildings located at such locations are likely to fare poorly. However, Wisma IJM is situated at such an elbow. Its entrance is also counter to the flow of one-way traffic along Jalan Yong Shook Lin.
As one drives into Jalan Yong Shook Lin from Jalan Selangor, one will find a row of shops on the left that has been around for ages. These shops have a conducive orientation and should do well. Some have been in business for decades. On the other side of the road, the orientation is not quite as good as it faces high land. However, MBPJ Tower is located behind them and this mitigates matters somewhat. They are likely to experience ups and downs like a roller-coaster.
As mentioned earlier, there is a hillock at Jalan Sultan where we find the post office, Federal Building (where the National Registration Department is located) and Chemistry Department. Again, it is not ideal to sit at a peak and it is not surprising that all three have a run-down appearance and are not very inviting.
Car park buffer
Across the road, there is an open-air car park where banks such as HSBC, RHB and Public Bank can be found. The flat land on which the car park sits provides a buffer and helps slow down the earth energy coming from the hillock. Nonetheless, this is not an ideal orientation. There was once a very popular restaurant called Mak Yee. It gave way to Country Kitchen which later also closed. Today, Public Bank occupies its premises.
Businesses here may enjoy great exposure and parking convenience outside banking hours, but success will be a struggle to attain and maintain, and likely to last for only one generation. Jalan 52/4 nearby has several landmarks. Poh Kong Jewellers has its corporate headquarters here. It started modestly as a goldsmith with one shop and today has expanded into Malaysia’s largest jewellery retail chain store. It has its own factory in Shah Alam and outlets in practically every shopping mall in the country. The humble shop now occupies three multi-storey lots to become a high-end showroom.
This phenomenon could likely be attributed to the founder’s life profile and his affinity for metal-related businesses. The premises also happen to sit on higher land than Jalan Sultan, and is thus separated from the hillock by a small shallow and gentle valley. If it was located closer to the ingress of Jalan 52/4, it might not have done as well, as can be seen by the fortunes of neighbouring goldsmiths.
The Standard Chartered Bank and Maybank also sit on higher land overlooking Jalan Sultan. They have an added advantage of being embraced by the bend in Jalan 52/4 and Jalan Sultan-Jalan Selangor. Thus, these banks do very well.
Feng Shui stories
We will explore more roads within and around Section 52 in our next instalment. For the rest of this segment, we wish to share some stories about Environology or Feng Shui masters and their adventures. Some of these are actual events as recorded in ancient historical texts; some are legendary or mythical in nature, possibly embellished over the ages with each retelling; and some are even humorous.
A number of these stories talk about selecting the right burial site for a person’s ancestors. This is believed to have a strong bearing on the descendants’ fortunes. It may seem far-fetched to sceptics but the large body of anecdotal evidence and its continued practice must surely suggest there is a grain of truth in it.
All living beings emit minor amounts of trace radioactivity from naturally occurring radioisotopes within their bodies. For example, a small percentage of potassium in the food we eat is potassium 40 (K-40). K-40 is responsible for the emission of positrons, neutrinos and gamma radiation from our body. We also generate alpha and beta radiation but these are easily shielded by our own skin.
If we emit radiation, is it not possible that it may carry a signature attuned to our DNA profile? Is it not possible that such a signature may resonate with others who have a similar DNA profile, namely our children and descendants? Much like a cell phone has a unique ID that stands out from other cell phones, our descendants may be influenced by us.
If a person is buried in a site that is infused by conducive and beneficial energy, could this energy possibly stimulate the radioactive emissions from his remains? Perhaps then, by way of transference or resonance, his descendants could become more alert and capitalise on opportunities that come their way. Conversely, a place with negative energy could cause the descendants to act irrationally, bringing harm and calumny to themselves.
This series on Feng Shui and real estate appears courtesy of the Malaysia Institute of Geomancy Sciences (MINGS). Koh is the founder of MINGS and has been a Feng Shui master and teacher for the past 36 years.You can e-mail questions on Feng Shui and properties to Prof David Koh at davidkoh618@yahoo.com.
Read other Feng Shui articles by Master David Koh and Joe Choo:
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