Today we wanted to take a closer look at the two most important memory halls and thus also two of the most famous sights in Taipei: the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall.
Table of contents
Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taipei
The National Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall was not so far from our Taipei M Hotel, so this was our first stop today. Memorial Hall is located in central Taipei and was built between 1976 and 1980 in memory of Chiang Kai-Shek, a longtime president of the Republic of China.
The white marble memorial hall with the blue brick roof stands at the end of a very large square – surrounded by a beautiful park with small ponds and promenades. Just across the street are the National Theatre, a concert hall and an imposing white archway called “Gate of Great Centrality and Perfect Uprightness”. The national colours of Taiwan – white, blue, red – are often found here, be it red flowers, white marble or the blue roofs.
A longer boulevard and 89 steps (each step represents the president’s year of life) lead to the mighty memorial hallthat towers above everything. In the main hall you can see a 16-metre-high bronze statue of the late President Chiang Kai-shek sitting in an armchair. Especially at the full hours there are a lot of people here, because at this time a changing of the guard takes place. The statue is well guarded at all times by two soldiers – one on the left and one on the right. What is particularly funny is that when the changing of the guard has taken place and two new soldiers are holding the guard of honour, two others come to see if the suit really sits – pluck here and there, put shoes on, clean over it and finish.
Finally we walked a little through the adjacent park, where you can find a beautiful white bridge over a small lake.
The Dr. Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall in Taipei
With one of the next red Hop On Hop Off buses we drove through the city again and got off at another memorial hall, the Dr. Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall. The site of the Memorial Hall, which also includes Zhongshan Park, covers almost 29,500 square meters and was built as a memorial to the founder of the Republic of China, Sun Yat-sen, and completed in 1972. In the hall itself there is a statue of Sun Yat-sen, where there is also an hourly change of guard, as well as a museum about his life and the revolution he led. Here we walked through briefly. By the way, you don’t have to pay for the hall and the exhibition – everything is accessible here free of charge.
After we had looked at everything here, we took a little round through the Zhongshan Park, which is beautifully laid out with small sidewalks, ponds and bridges. In the ponds there were a lot of turtles that were crazy on our biscuits 😉
Der Tonghua Night Market & Pet Street
At nightfall we made a detour to the Tonghua Night Market on Linjiang Street. From the metro station Xinyi Anhe (Red Metro Line, exit 3) it is only a few minutes walk until you are here. Night markets are great for just strolling through, looking at the various stalls, getting inspired and tasting Asian delicacies. When we were here, there wasn’t that much going on, because the market had only just opened. On the other side at the end of the market you cross Keelung Road, better known as The Pet Street of Taipei. Here one pet shop is next to the other and the cages with small dog puppies and cats are right in the shop window. On the one hand incredibly sweet and cute the little rackers, on the other hand it was not nice to see in which small cages the animals are kept all day.
In the next post we report on the other sights of Taipei such as the Botanical Garden, Longshan Temple, Palace Museum and the Presidential Palace.
Starbucks Global Icon City Mug of Taipeh
We are collecting the Starbucks Mugs from the cities and islands we visit on our travels. Unfortunately, not every city that has a Starbucks store with an own mug. But if the city has an own mug we like to collect them as a souvenir. We only collect city mugs from the "Global Icon Series", which was released in 2008. You can see our complete collection here: Starbucks - Our collection of Mugs from the Global Icon SeriesTaipei has several Starbucks stores and also has its own cup 🙂
Starbucks Global Icon City Mug of Taipeh