An artist’s impression of the proposed waterway in the new Wynyard Quarter, as shown in the New Zealand Herald 21st November 2013 (*1) 

According to a recent article in the New Zealand Herald, “A touch of Venice is going to be coming to Auckland as plans are progressed for a new canal to be dug through the centre of Auckland’s Wynyard Quarter.” Just a very little touch indeed, when one considers that all that’s actually being proposed is one small 150m – 200m canal running east to west off Halsey St; parallel with Madden St to the North and Pakenham St to the South. The paths on either side of the proposed canal will be purely pedestrian according to the article and the artist’s impression presents an attractive, relaxed urban scene albeit one that does not quite fit good feng shui guidelines in the buildings shown. Planners say the development of this western side of the inner city include intentions for a further five-star hotel, offices and eventually, upwards of 1500 apartments.

In a strictly Eurocentric view, it might seem natural to take the canals of Venice as the point of similarity of this up and coming revamp of the city. However, taking our placement on the edge of Asia into consideration and widening our perspective out to other cities just as famous for their canals however, it may surprise readers to know just how many cities all across the globe have beautiful canals; which, from a feng shui perspective, all serve a similar purpose to those of Venice, whether recognised or not. Indeed in some, we will find architectural equals to those of Venice ranged along their banks, if not always of a European aesthetic.

First, let’s start with a little feng shui background as to the importance of canals and other water ways in general terms in classical Chinese feng shui.2 The term Feng Shui translates simply enough as Wind (Feng) Water (Shui), and in classical Chinese wind/water theory, water is related to trade and the accumulation of wealth. This can be seen in the world’s major trading centres, all of which are, either coastal or have access to deep navigable water.(*3) Although the rules that govern the flow of water are many and complex, there are two simple principles that govern the movement of water in such situations. The first is that any trading site should be wrapped around by the flow of water, rather like a belt around a fat man’s belly. The second is that from the point where the trade occurs, one should never be able to see back out of the mouth of the waterway. In this respect, the mouth refers to a harbour’s entrance; or in the case of rivers and lakes, those points where the water eventually exits the system of waterways; natural or manmade. Auckland in fact is a very good example of this with Rangitoto Island preventing any views to the open ocean from inside the Waitemata Harbour except for several tiny spots around upper Orakei, all of which have been; certainly until recently at least, lower socio-economic government owned housing areas. (How they will do after their controversial revamp remains yet to be seen.)

Spreading our eyes much further a field, we find that in China there are several wonderful historic examples, none better perhaps than the city of Suzhou, towards the southern terminus of the mighty Grand Canal, still the oldest, longest and most imposing manmade waterway of them all. Started sometime in the 5th century BCE, the Grand Canal was eventually to serve the same purpose for Imperial China in allowing a free flow of trade from North to South, as the Mediterranean did for ancient cultures scattered around its edges, from Africa to Europe and from the Middle East to Western Europe.4 Suzhou remains resplendent in its canals and today is a major tourist attraction, like its European counterparts Venice and Amsterdam.

Suzhou is famous enough for its canals alone but this entrancing city is just as renowned it is said, for producing some of the most beautiful women in all of China. Other famous cities in China that have elaborate canal systems are Hangzhou, the southern terminus of the Grand Canal, Guangzhou (Canton) with several canals built around the network of islands that dot this part of the mighty Pearl River Delta. Changzhou and Yangzhou, also on the Grand Canal, are two other Chinese cities that have retained their waterways.

Vietnam’s Saigon is another that has a series of canals linked to the immense Mekong Delta. This city has been a major centre of trade since long before the period of French colonisation. Further north along the coast in Vietnam one comes to two other cities with extensive canals, Hai Phong, port to Hanoi and the little 16th century town of Hoi An. Although no longer a major trading port, it remains a prosperous tourist and fishing centre.

Further to the southwest, is Krung Thep, the City of Angels; better known to most of us as Bangkok, and sometimes referred to still as the Venice of the East. Bangkok was built by the remnants of the Siamese court of the old kingdom of Ayutthaya who fled south from the ravages of invading Burmese forces in 1767. These refugees sought the security of the far side of the Chao Phraya River following the devastation of their former, up-river capital by the Burmese. Later, with the influx of Europeans into the area in the mid to late 1800’s and the introduction of horse drawn carriages; followed by automobiles in the early 1900’s, Bangkok’s wonderful and perfectly functional klongs (canals) began, alas, to be filled in and replaced with paved roads. This along with the vast increase in population and the manic explosion of building on what is essentially a vast tidal swamp, has pushed nature to the limits. Today the city of Angels, like Venice, is not only prone to regular flooding but is inexorably sinking. The severe flooding of 2011, showed this only too dramatically.

However, to return to our European examples; two in particular stand out: Venice and Amsterdam. Yet another, just across the border in Belgium, also less famous today for its trade than its tourists, due to the silting of its tidal waterways that now mean ships can no longer pull directly up at its once famous wharves, is the little city of Bruges. It has retained its canals and is a beautiful place just to wander about. Others back across the border in the Netherlands, where the entire country is riddled with canals, are picturesque Delft, Gouda and Utrecht which have all kept their waterways intact.

St Petersburg built by Peter the Great, stands testimony to 18th and 19th Century Russian fascination with all things European and has many spectacular palaces and mansions of the once fabulously rich aristocracy of Tsarist Russia arraigned along its impressive rivers and canals. It remains one of Russia’s most important ports. The Nordic capitals of Helsinki, Stockholm and Copenhagen all have notable waterways of their own, across which they too are built. Two other major world cities that have significant canals which have played an important part in their histories but which are now mostly covered over with roads running along and on top of them are Milan and Tokyo. Milan in fact historically, once looked very similar to Amsterdam, encircled by its waterways like a giant spider’s web. In both cities, the rivers and canals are now simply covered over by ring roads where once there were enveloping canals. I have often stood fascinated on top of some of these in Tokyo, listening to the water rushing deep underfoot, clearly audible in the rainy season. These old canals in Tokyo are called Green Roads now as they are concreted over and planted out in long lines of flowering cherry trees under which sakura-viewing parties are held in spring.

Across the Atlantic in the New World, we come to another city once built on an island in a lake completely encircled by water; her canals sadly long disappeared. The ancient Aztec city of Tenochtitlan has now morphed into the megalopolis of Mexico City. Its canals and waterways were a source of wonder to the invading Conquistadors who alas had but one thing on their mind – gold.

With avarice controlling their every action, and caring little how they attained it, their lust for the Aztec’s gold saw the collapse and eventual demise of Tenochtitlan’s wondrous canals and waterways. A final shadow of their former splendour can however still be found in the district of Xochimilco to the southeast of the present day city.

On the west coast of today’s USA can be found another Venice. Most people will be familiar with Los Angeles’s Venice Beach, renowned for its narcissistic musclemen (and women) who like to work out and show off along its seaside boardwalk. Less well known are this Venice’s canals. The small network of canals that remain today, are part of a vast complex that once stretched over 100 miles in length. Built and named by the super rich tobacco heir, Abbott Kinney in 1905, he wanted to emulate the beauty and fascination of the real Venice. He constructed an immense amusement park centred on these canals with real gondolieri especially imported from Italy to punt visitors from one part of the park to another. It fell into decline and disrepair during the years of the Great Depression; eventually becoming a hangout for drug dealers, gangs and other criminal elements, languishing as a dangerous and unpleasant neighbourhood with a very nasty reputation until the mid-1990’s when the decision was taken to clean up and revamp the one small remaining set of waterways. Significantly, the canals were dredged and cleaned, the water once more allowed to rise and fall twice daily with every tide, as it once had. Then, as if miraculously, property prices which had until then remained low due to the unsavoury nature of its earlier occupants, quickly sky-rocketed. Today it’s a great place to explore when in LA. But it is amusing that so many still wonder, mystified at this seemingly inexplicable recovery of Venice’s canal district. Miami, Florida is also noted for its extensive networks of waterways and canals. Modelled on these, others have followed in Sydney’s Sylvania Waters, Runaway Bay on the Gold Coast and even here in our very own Pauanui on the Coromandel Peninsula.

Further south in the New World, along the Guyana Shelf to the north of Brazil, one comes to the republic of Suriname, once Dutch Guyana. Here the Dutch mastery of hydrology is evident everywhere across the northern parts of the country. A part of Greater Amazonia, the coastal zones of Suriname in particular are flat, watery and require constant drainage which was very much a focus of the earlier Dutch Colonial authorities. Clawed out by hand in the sweltering tropical heat (the Capital Paramaribo is just 5 degrees above the equator) by slaves stolen from Africa, the land is a network of long, heartbreakingly straight canals stretching often as far as the eye can see. Here, the network of waterways is strictly utilitarian. There is none of the whimsy or mystery of canals in Amsterdam, Venice or Suzhou; just the raw agricultural necessity of draining the land. And it’s this unrelenting straightness of the canals in Suriname which reveals a major problem in the country’s fortunes. No twisting and turning of the watercourses, no demonstration of coquettish reluctance to leave, as in Amsterdam, Bangkok, Suzhou or Venice. The water is instead simply run off in long straight lines, drained away. This is markedly different from all the other networks of canals we have looked at so far. The one shared feature of all these other successful waterways is the obviously convoluted paths their canals take.

For those who know something of classical Chinese feng shui, this intricate channelling of the water in the surrounding environment in all these cities is of real significance. The first principle of classical Chinese feng shui is the ‘getting of water’. In the case of all the cities above, the first is well met. Since water is a symbolic reference to money in feng shui, and one of the governing principles of the placement of water is to not be able to see where it eventually leaves desirable sites, the canals of Suriname fail this most basic feng shui requirement and the country continues to perform poorly economically. Although it must be said there are several other factors from a feng shui perspective which also contribute to this situation, the straightness of its canals is without a doubt a significant issue.

The long straight canals of Suriname along which the water simply dissipates any feng shui value brought by the water Images from the writers own collection all rights reserved

More long straight canals in Surinam. Compare these with those of Amsterdam in the picture above and the map below Images from the writers own collection all rights reserved.

In returning then to the feng shui effects of the canal proposed for the redevelopment of the Wynyard Quarter, it ought to be relatively positive as there should be no views directly out to its source. Even so; and there are indeed provisos in such cases, this does not mean the water will be positive for all buildings erected alongside its path. These will need to be analysed individually; preferably as part of their design process rather than as an afterthought, using the formidable but highly effective Time/Space dimension or ‘Flying Stars School of classical Chinese feng shui.

This important need aside, the proposed canal and the redevelopment of the area in general, bodes well for the inner city as a whole, and will do particularly well as we approach the change of feng shui energies from 2014 forward into 2024. The canal and the redevelopment of the Wynyard Quarter, like the updated, Britomart Precinct, will only add to the positive feng shui of Auckland’s greater downtown area.

With all of this in mind, I wish to add one final word to the developers. From the artist’s impressions shown so far, there are likely to be feng shui issues with the types of buildings illustrated therein. In my opinion, it would well behove these planners and architects to take the benefits of classical Chinese feng shui into account in their plans for the city; not just the downtown area, but for all major long term planning in the city. Especially so given the ever increasing intertwining of this country’s economy with those across the whole of Asia, whose diverse peoples have long paid very real attention to the value of classical Chinese feng shui.