A man who knew what to do in the rain

PENANG — Good feng shui — the Chinese art of placing buildings and everything inside them in harmony with the environment — depends on how skillfully a designer incorporates the five elements of water, wood, metal, earth and fire.

When it comes to water, most people would be satisfied with a fountain, but not Cheong Fatt Tze.

When it rains outside, the water flows inside the Choeng Fatt Tze Mansion, a 16-room hotel inside the opulent home this rags-to-riches businessman built in the late 1800s as his base of operations in Penang.

From the wooden staircases to the stained glass windows, Chinese lattice screens and bright indigo exterior, there's lots to admire, but nothing compares to sitting out a thunderstorm around the center courtyard — the spot where the "chi" or energy is considered greatest.

Chinese craftsmen designed the mansion with drainage pipes in the walls and openings in the roof.

When it rains, the plant-filled courtyard, made of sunken granite about two feet below floor-level, fills with water, then just as it looks as though it might reach the top and flood the tile floors, it slowly drains away.

For Choeng Fatt Tze, who left China at 16 in 1856 to seek his fortune in Penang, the slow accumulation of water equated to the slow accumulation of wealth.

Starting out as a water carrier, he built a banking and railroad fortune and married eight wives.

Incorporating traditional Chinese style with quirky British and European details such as Scottish cast-iron columns and railings and imported floor tiles, the 38-room mansion was intended for his sons. Instead, after he died in 1916, one of the wives turned it into a boarding house.

Dilapidated and rundown, it was acquired by a group of local preservationists in 1990. With a UNESCO award for conservation, it's now run as a museum and heritage homestay with guest rooms ($82 with breakfast) on two floors.

Staying here is a little like walking onto a movie set. In fact, parts of "Indochine" with Catherine Deneuve were filmed here.

The cartoonish paint job is refreshingly out of place among the white stucco high-rise hotels and British-style colonial buildings nearby.

Unusual now, the color was popular in Georgetown in the late 19th century when the British imported indigo dyes from India.

High-ceiling rooms with stone floors and heavy wooden doors and shutters lead to side courtyards where ceiling fans whirl above tables set into quiet nooks for reading or relaxing.

Guests checking in cool off over glasses of nutmeg juice in a lobby decorated with Chinese antiques. Modern touches include AC, Wi-Fi and new toilets and sinks. Outsiders can visit only during twice-daily tours, but guests get the run of the house.

If Choeng Fatt Tze were alive today he might be able to use his clout to do something about the late-night music coming from the Red Garden Food Paradise Night Market next door.

As it stands, it's probably best to take preemptive action if you plan to stay here, and ask for a room on the quieter east side of the house.