Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion

Cheong Fatt Tze was a Hakka who arrived in Southeast Asia with nothing and ended up running a commercial empire across the region, and the house he built in George Town in the 1890s was one of several but the one that survives. It is a Chinese courtyard mansion of thirty-eight rooms and five courtyards, with cast-iron columns from Glasgow, Stoke-on-Trent floor tiles, Scottish ironwork, Gothic louvred windows and chien nien cut-porcelain shard work on the roof - a mix that reflects exactly how the Straits merchant world worked. The famous indigo exterior comes from lime wash mixed with natural indigo dye. By the 1980s it was derelict and near demolition; a group of conservationists bought it in 1989 and the restoration became a reference point for the George Town conservation movement.

What you actually see

• An indigo lime-washed exterior - the blue the house is universally known by.
• Five courtyards and 38 rooms - the Chinese plan running back from the street.
• Imported Victorian materials - Glasgow ironwork, English tiles, Gothic windows.
• Cut-porcelain shard work - chien nien figures worked along the rooflines.

When to go

All year; tours run at fixed times, so arrive for one. An hour or two.

Honest expectations

Access to most of the house is by guided tour only, at set times - turning up between them means seeing very little. It also operates as a hotel, so some areas are closed. It gets busy.

Nearby

The George Town heritage core, Khoo Kongsi and the clan jetties are all walkable.