The town of Tekesi in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region is laid out in a "Bagua" design, the eight important elements that influence a person's life. Photo: CFP
Most people familiar with feng shui, which literally means wind and water, understand it as a fairly quaint belief in some mysterious workings of the universe.
Where it is caught on in other countries, people might consider some feng shui principles when decorating their apartment or aligning their doors and windows and even toilets in an auspiciously correct manner when designing a new home.
In China, the 6,500-year-old art of divining a mutually beneficial symbiosis between humans and the environment is still used by some to try to influence their fate, their health and even their careers.
Taken to this level, the strongly held system of beliefs becomes cultish superstition that has pushed local government officials to do the oddest things.
Hu Jianxue, the former Party secretary of the tourism city Tai'an, Shandong Province, at the foot of the famous Tai-shan Mountain, was told by his feng shui master that he would soon be appointed a vice-premier of the country. The only problem the master said cryptically was that Hu lacked a "bridge."
Hu somehow got it into his head that he literally needed to build a bridge and he ordered it done. He changed the route of a national highway so it would pass a reservoir and would require a bridge be built.
Hu must have thought this was a master stroke at unblocking his feng shui, but it got him nowhere close to his coveted vice premiership. His feng shui master apparently failed to warn him about the essential need of being an honest politician. Hu was later convicted of taking huge bribes and was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve.
Hu is not at all alone in spending taxpayers' money to fulfill the requirements of fortune-tellers masquerading as feng shui masters.
In a poor county in Gansu Province officials spent 5 million yuan ($791,695) in September 2010 to move a 369-ton rock nine kilometers to the county square to block bad luck from entering the town and prevent good luck escaping from the community. Some reports put the cost of the project as high as 11 million yuan.
In early 2007, a side of Laoshou Mountain, located in Fumin county of Yunnan Province, was found to have been painted green, and several reports suggested it was to enhance the feng shui and the view from an office building of the Party committee.
Similar examples have been documented around the country and the pattern seems the same. Incompetent and opportunistic officials hoping to improve their fate, heed the orders of so-called feng shui masters.
Millennia-old belief system
Some people believe feng shui charts and documents have been unearthed from crypts dating more than 6,500 years.
Feng shui masters have been widely consulted by Chinese architects for several thousand years.
Professor Zhang Jianwei with the School of Law of Tsinghua University wrote in his blog last October about the different reasons why people and officials cling to their belief in feng shui.
He says it is acceptable that some officials invite feng shui masters to help make sure that construction projects they build are better.
"Some officials use feng shui after they have done vile deeds because they believe some mysterious force is controlling them and hope feng shui will help them avoid disaster and bring more opportunities to get them promoted," wrote Zhang.
To get a promotion or to change their luck, superstitious officials often accept feng shui consultations that are given as gifts by those seeking favors.
"If officials ask someone in business to pay for a feng shui master's advice, it certainly is a bribe," said He Bing, vice president with School of Law, China University of Political Science and Law in an interview with Fangyuan Magazine.