About Us

Cai Hong 蔡洪

(Howard Choy - Principal of ECOFS)

b.1949, Shiu Hing, China

 

Written by Richard Ashworth, author of "The Feng Shui Diaries"

 

Howard Choy is unique, being a practising Architect as well as a native trained Chinese Feng Shui Master, who teaches Taijquan and Qigong too. As a Feng Shui Consultant and an Architect his clients have included major companies like Murdoch Magazines, Land Lease, Citibank and Speedo Australia. As a Feng Shui Master he teaches classical Feng Shui all over the world. So far nearly every year he has taken a group of Europeans to China, where they see the sacred sites and learn Feng Shui and Chinese Culture on the spot. Often he takes them to places only a native speaker would be able to gain access.

 

Howard Choy (Cai Hong) is a 16^th generation descendant (counting from the southern migration) of a Zhou Prince whose descendants have settled in Shiu Hing Guangdong, where he was born in 1949. He was educated at first in China and then as the Cultural Revolution loomed, he was spirited away by his journalist father, who was aware of the coming upheaval, to safety first in Hong Kong, then in Sydney Australia.

 

After graduating with a B.Arch. from the University of New South Wales, Howard took a job an expatriate Architect with Stephenson Turner and Connell in Hong Kong, which allowed him to study Feng Shui under the personal tutelage of Master Ren Zhilin and Yang Family Taijiquan under Grandmaster Yang Sou-Chung. Following his Hong Kong post, Howard sought out Feng Shui experts in China, an arduous undertaking in the early days of Deng Xiaoping.

 

These included Professor Wang Yude of Huazhong Normal University, Wuhan, who took a risk for Howard and in 2005 finally succeeded in gaining authorisation for the first ever Feng Shui Course certificated by a Chinese University. Another mentor was Professor Cheng Jiangiun of Huanam University of Technology, Guangzhou.

 

Howard has written several books on Feng Shui and Qigong* as well as contributing regular columns to such publications as Better Homes and Gardens magazine and the Sydney North Shore Times newspaper.

 

He has also given major talks about Feng Shui and architecture all over the world at events such as the International Feng Shui Conference in London, Turin and the International Feng Shui Association (IFSA) in Singapore as well as the annual Hong Kong International Conference on Scientific Feng Shui and the Built Environment. He co-founded and is the current President of the Feng Shui Society of Australia.

 

As a Feng Shui Consultant, Howard participated in notable projects such as the Urban upgrading of Sydney’s Chinatown in Haymarket, Sydney for the 2000 Olympic Games, which won the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects, National Project Award in 2000 and the restoration of the Sydney Chinese Garden of Friendship in Darling Harbour. Current major projects include the expansion of the Sydney Star City Casino.

 

Howard has deeply knowledgeable about all aspects of Chinese culture including Xuanxue (Study of the Mysterious or Chinese Metaphysics) like Bazi Suanming, Face Reading, Yijing Reading and Self-activated Talisman Writings, as well as Feng Shui.

 

He has dedicated his professional life to incorporating the principles of classical Feng Shui into his architectural work. Again unique among his peers, he has strong and authoritative views on what constitute good Feng Shui and its works in every life practices and he does his work with a deep respect for the Western interpretations. He sees himself as a cultural bridge between the East and the West.

 

With increasing demand for his expertise outside of Australia, Howard is now based in Berlin and has an office in Mitte (CBD Berlin) with his German partners Gyda Anders and Tilman Weiland, who are both practicing Feng Shui architects, consultants and teachers as well.

 

Together they make a unique team, being qualified architects, able to read Chinese and have years of architectural and Feng Shui experience behind them.

 

*Feng Shui: Creating Health, Wealth and Harmony”, Pan Macmillan, Sydney 1998, Qigong: Feng Shui for the Body, Pan Macmillan, Sydney 1998.  Feng Shui – How to Create Harmony and Balance in Your Living and Working Environment, Lansdowne Press, 1997. (both with Belinda Henwood.)