The magnificent 38-room, 220-window 'Blue Mansion' was built in the 1880s and rescued from ruin in the 1990s. It blends Eastern and Western designs with louvred windows, art nouveau stained glass and beautiful floor tiles, and is a rare surviving example of the eclectic architectural style preferred by wealthy Straits Chinese. Its distinctive (and once-common in George Town) blue hue is the result of an indigo-based lime wash.
Hour-long guided tours (included in the admission fee) provide a glimpse of the interior as well as an insight into traditional Chinese architecture.
The mansion was commissioned by Cheong Fatt Tze, a Hakka merchant-trader who left China as a penniless teenager and eventually established a vast financial empire throughout east Asia, earning himself the dual sobriquets 'Rockefeller of the East' and the 'Last Mandarin'.
