Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion

The Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion is a government gazetted heritage building located on Leith Street in George Town, Penang, Malaysia. The mansion's external decorations and indigo-blue outer walls make it a very distinctive building, and it is sometimes referred to as The Blue Mansion. Built by the merchant Cheong Fatt Tze at the end of the 19th century, the mansion has 38 rooms, 5 granite-paved courtyards, 7 staircases and 220 vernacular timber louvre windows. It served as Cheong's private residence as well as the seat of his business activities in Penang.

The mansion is eclectic, but mainly reflects Chinese architectural styles of the Imperial Period with some European elements such as louvered windows and metal balustrades. Features of the house include Gothic louvred windows, Chinese cut and paste porcelain work, Stoke-on-Trent floor tiles made of encaustic clay in geometric pieces all shaped to fit to a perfect square, Glasgow cast iron works by MacFarlane's & Co. and Art Nouveau…