The cost of a fengshui reading depends on the size of the apartment or office and fengshui masters can charge as much as NT$30,000 and upwards for a reading. Chang and other members of the CGRA, however, feel that such exorbitant fees undermine the true meaning of fengshuig.
"We don't do it for the money. [Fengshui] is a social science and should be treated as such. For private apartments I'll measure the size of the place and the wealth of the owner and charge a fee based on that," he said. "Offices and companies are obviously different and I usually charge somewhere in the region of between NT$10,000 and NT$30,000."
Not all fengshui masters, however, are as pious as Chang. The veteran fengshui master has been forced to eject quite a few unscrupulous practitioners from the association over the years for what he considered to be cases of malpractice, bordering on fraud.
When he's not working in Taipei Chang can often be found in Shanghai, where the development of the city's business district has kept him hugely busy in recent years. His grandest project to date, and one he gladly undertook free of charge, was the fengshui survey of the world's tallest building -- the Taipei 101.
Invited by the architect to survey the building after a series of accidents, Chang feels that his survey and recommendations saved the building and construction contractors from further
embarrassment.
"There were many problems with the building in its early days. Pieces fell off cranes, there was a fire and accidents happened all too regularly," said Chang. "After I surveyed it and made my recommendations, building continued at the 101 without incident."
Correcting the flow of chi at the Taipei 101 may have been Chang's loftiest project to date, but his most prestigious took him to the corridors of power and beyond. Chang organized the office equipment, furniture and other trappings in the Presidential Office for the current administration and has also been asked for his input on important matters of state, such as what attire President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) should wear and how and where he should stand when addressing the public.
While much of Chang's work takes place within the confines of apartments and offices, he has on occasion been called out to survey roads and streets before construction and groundbreaking at new development sites. Such surveys have enabled Chang to record some interesting and, at times, frightening situations regarding the harmony of several of Taipei's major roads.
Chang said the most harmonious road in Taipei, and one at which the chi flows unhindered is Zhongshan North Road, sections one through three. Other well-balanced roads include Hoping and Nanjing east roads, Renai, Xinyi and Bade roads.
It is bad news for those who live near the Yuanshan traffic intersection at Chungshan north,section four, Jianguo, Xinhai and Xinsheng North Road. Any road with either a bridge or express way on top, or dissecting it, is cursed with bad fengshui. And the prize for the road in Taipei City with the worst fengshui goes to Guandu Road, in Beitou.
Next week, we look at the job of the clog maker.
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