Undoubtedly one of the factors contributing to the commercial success of Hong Kong is her feng shui. Hong Kong is a tiny place on the map but she has become a dynamic trade and finance centre. GM Raymond Lo describes it

Feng shui, which means ‘wind and water’ originates from an ancient Chinese book called ‘Book of Burial’ written by Kuo P’o in around 265AD. This book, describes the features of landscapes which will generate good feng shui. It says, ‘the energy of the dragon will be dissipated by wind and will stop at the boundary of water.’ 

The sentence tells us two important criteria in finding a good feng shui place. Firstly, the site must be sheltered from strong wind, secondly it must be near the boundary of a watercourse. In feng shui, we believe that there are energies called aki which are to be found in mountain ranges, which we call ‘dragons’.

To preserve such prosperous energy, the place must have shelter or natural protection against strong wind. Also the ‘dragon’ is thought to move forward until it reaches water. At the boundary of water and land, the ‘dragon’ halts. Where the dragon stops, the energy accumulates. So a good feng shui place must meet these two requirements. It must be sheltered on all four sides, front, back, left and right, and it must be near water with an open space to accumulate ch’i.

The natural shelter on the four sides is usually symbolised by four auspicious animals. The protection in front is called the Phoenix or Firebird, at the back it is the Tortoise, with the Dragon on the left and Tiger on the right, facing outwards.

How It Works In Hong Kong

The landscape of Hong Kong exactly meets these criteria for a good feng shui place. The heart of Hong Kong is in the Kowloon Peninsula and in the Central District of Hong Kong Island. These two areas are very well sheltered at the back by tall mountains in the North, ending at the Lion Rock before descending to form the Kowloon Peninsula. To the left of Kowloon there is a tall mountain called the Kowloon Peak, forming the Dragon arm.

To the right, the Tiger arm is represented by the Lantau Peak, and in front we have the beautiful Victoria Peak. So Kowloon Peninsula and the Central District of Hong Kong are well sheltered from all sides and Victoria Harbour forms the boundary of water signalling the stopping place of the dragons where are preserved the prosperous energies, on both sides of the harbour.

Although it is many miles away, in a feng shui sense the mountains of Kowloon are said to originate from a massive mountain range called the Kun Lun Shan in the West of China. The mountains enter the New Territories to the North-east of Kowloon. One arm extends South to form the Lion Rock, another arm extends Eastward to form the Kowloon Peak. The Kowloon Peak descends into the sea and passes through the narrow channel called Lei Yue Mun. Then it rises up on to form Hong Kong Island and moved Westward, continuing the path of the dragon, until it eventually stops at the Victoria Peak.

The Hong Kong landscape exactly meets the criteria for good feng shui

So the Victoria Peak is considered to be the terminating point – or the head of the Dragon. The Dragon turns back to face North-east as if it is turning its head to look back to China, its ‘motherland’. This beautiful geographic configuration is called ‘Dragon turning its head to greet its ancestors’ and has strong feng shui implications. The head of the dragon forms a protection and shelter for its own body and tail. The prosperous energies are therefore well preserved in Victoria Harbour and bounded by both shores of the harbour.

Two important districts – Central District on Hong Kong Island and Mongkok in Tsim Sha Tsui on Kowloon Peninsula are referred to as ‘Dragon’s Dens’ meaning the spots where the energy of the landscape most concentrates.

Family Feng Shui Secrets

By examining the landscape, feng shui masters can tell what kind of prosperity will be generated and which members of the family will benefit. The general rule is that the Dragon arm symbolises prosperity for the eldest son, the fourth son and the seventh son, assuming your family

is that large! The centre line represents the second, fifth and the eighth son. If the Dragon range is taller, then perhaps the land will produce a stronger prosperity for the eldest, the fourth and the seventh sons. The Phoenix, or the sheltering mountain in front, symbolises the well being of all the daughters in a family.

The landscape of Hong Kong shows a very beautiful Victoria mountain in front of Kowloon, taking this Phoenix position. This factor is considered to contribute to the number of powerful and influential women in Hong Kong. There are many famous ladies in politics such as Arson Cyan, Elsie Lung, Rota Fan and Maria Tam, with other women in significant positions in management and banking.

The configuration of physical landscape as expressed by the Form School is a very important aspect of feng shui. However, physical form alone cannot explain the amazing economic success of Hong Kong in the past two decades. A good physical environment only constitutes the potential for prosperity but it is also necessary to study the more abstract energies as described by the Compass School to understand the timing of prosperity for a place.

Flying Star School

In the Flying Star School of feng shui, the abstract energies and their pattern of change over time is calculated through an ancient drawing called the Lo Shu diagram. It was a mysterious picture said to be discovered on the back of a giant tortoise about 6,000 years ago. This picture shows the distribution of feng shui energies, or the ‘Flying Stars’, at different time and space dimensions. ‘Stars’ are not in this sense astronomical stars but moving energies. Flying Star is a rather inadequate translation of the original Chinese concept.

These ‘Stars’, thus the fortune of a place, will change according to a time cycle called ‘Three Period and Nine Ages’. One ‘Age’ is a twenty year cycle and each Age is governed by a Trigram of the I Ching or a number. The current Age is the period between 1984 and 2003 and is called the ‘Age of 7’ and the Trigram of this age occupies the West Direction in the Lo Shu diagram.

In brief, the theory is that during the Age of 7 if there is a tall mountain to the West of a site, it will enhance human harmony. If there is water on the opposite side ie, the East, it will enhance money prosperity for that site.

Looking at the landscape of Hong Kong, it has water in the East, hence it enjoyed strong economic successes since 1984, but human harmony is as strong as there is no mountain in the West. Its West is the sea separating Kowloon from Lantau Island. Hence we have seen more conflicts and struggles, uncertainties and an exodus of people between the Sino-British Joint Declaration in 1984 and the handover of Sovereignty on 1 July 1997. This is just one ‘macro’ application of Flying Star School theory to the form of the landscape in and around Hong Kong

Change Of Fortune

Under this theory, looking forward, there will be a change of fortune in the next Age from the year 2004 to 2024. This new age is called the ‘Age of 8’ and it concentrates on the North-east. The same theory tells us that if Hong Kong has a mountain in the North-east, it will enjoy human harmony, and if it has water in the South-west it will enjoy money prosperity. The landscape of Hong Kong exactly matches this requirement. It has tall mountains in the North-east and water in the South-west.

So according to Flying Star feng shui, Hong Kong can look forward to long term prosperity, in both human harmony and money wealth during the next Age of 8 which commenced in February 2004.

The construction of the new airport at Chak Lap Kok, the Tsing Ma Bridge and the numerous civil projects in and around Lantau Island are happening to the South-west of Kowloon, pointing to the direction in which development should take place as predicted by the Flying Star School feng shui theory.