Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall - Taipei (Taiwan)
While just sitting and planning the next possible trips, I decided to put some light on my favorite places that I've been to. This time we'll go to the capital of Taiwan - Taipei.
Taiwan is a truly exotic Asian country and it matches the typical far Asian country stereotypes pretty well; crowded streets, flashy and colorful high-tech advertisements hanging everywhere, lots of traffic and motorbikes on the streets, smell of food from many nearby restaurants or food courts, Asian-style Peace (or Victory) posing in front of the cameras, street sellers, trendy and fashionably dressed youth, etc. I mean it's all about technology, gadgets, food, pretty Asian girls and noise...
If you've been to Taipei, you may easily get lost. Unless you speak bit of Chinese and understand all those Chinese signs. Or you need some local guide to take you around in this maze of streets and buildings, where even travel guide books may become helpless sometimes. Once you live there for a while and become able to find your way around, then that's the place to live and enjoy. In fact many foreigners don't know how much happening city is Taipei! How many interesting hidden secrets it has. I'll reveal some of them in my future posts. But for now, let's get to know more about the gem of tourist attractions in Taipei - CKS Memorial Hall.
What amazed me in this memorial hall was not the identity of Chaing Kai Shek himself, but the design and architecture of the memorial complex. Simply stunning! Chinese-style oriental architecture, beautiful Chinese gardens with a lake, grand buildings and mighty entrance gates in the same style. The complex consists of CKS's mausoleum and museum, national theatres, wide open square, lake with a bridge, and the grand entrance gates. Once you step into the area through the main gates, you feel that you are entering the imperial palace of some kind of forgotten kindgdom, and for a moment you are distracted from your reality that you are in a megapolis. Far in front of you above the stairs, and facing the gates, stands grand building with sky blue roofs. It has wide and very tall entrance, and if you look carefully you can notice the giant man sitting on his throne and looking at you ( That's Chiang Kai Shek. His grand statue. And the building is his mausoleum. There is a musem in the bottom floor) .
Right after the gates from both sides stand two great Chinese style buildings with beautiful roofs. These are the theaters. On the right side behind the theater there's Chinese lake with lotuses and a nice concave bridge. Other parts of the complex consist of gardens.
More photos;
View from the stairs that leads to Chiang Kai Shek's mausoleum. Notice the ornaments on the grass lanes on the sides. You can also see how huge the square is.
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Taiwan is a truly exotic Asian country and it matches the typical far Asian country stereotypes pretty well; crowded streets, flashy and colorful high-tech advertisements hanging everywhere, lots of traffic and motorbikes on the streets, smell of food from many nearby restaurants or food courts, Asian-style Peace (or Victory) posing in front of the cameras, street sellers, trendy and fashionably dressed youth, etc. I mean it's all about technology, gadgets, food, pretty Asian girls and noise...
If you've been to Taipei, you may easily get lost. Unless you speak bit of Chinese and understand all those Chinese signs. Or you need some local guide to take you around in this maze of streets and buildings, where even travel guide books may become helpless sometimes. Once you live there for a while and become able to find your way around, then that's the place to live and enjoy. In fact many foreigners don't know how much happening city is Taipei! How many interesting hidden secrets it has. I'll reveal some of them in my future posts. But for now, let's get to know more about the gem of tourist attractions in Taipei - CKS Memorial Hall.
aibek-on-bridge.jpg, originally uploaded by aibek_dunaev
Well, you should know about Chiang Kai Shek if you have studied your World History lesson at school. This far I can say here; he's the founder of Taiwan, and accepted as the country's "Father". But not all the people see him as national hero. He was the leader of the ruling party Kuomintang of ROC (Republic of China) which is current China. Then he lost the power to Communist Party inmainland China and escaped to Taiwan island with his government and continued ruling the ROC (another name of Taiwan) in this island. Check out the history sources to learn more about him.
What amazed me in this memorial hall was not the identity of Chaing Kai Shek himself, but the design and architecture of the memorial complex. Simply stunning! Chinese-style oriental architecture, beautiful Chinese gardens with a lake, grand buildings and mighty entrance gates in the same style. The complex consists of CKS's mausoleum and museum, national theatres, wide open square, lake with a bridge, and the grand entrance gates. Once you step into the area through the main gates, you feel that you are entering the imperial palace of some kind of forgotten kindgdom, and for a moment you are distracted from your reality that you are in a megapolis. Far in front of you above the stairs, and facing the gates, stands grand building with sky blue roofs. It has wide and very tall entrance, and if you look carefully you can notice the giant man sitting on his throne and looking at you ( That's Chiang Kai Shek. His grand statue. And the building is his mausoleum. There is a musem in the bottom floor) .
Right after the gates from both sides stand two great Chinese style buildings with beautiful roofs. These are the theaters. On the right side behind the theater there's Chinese lake with lotuses and a nice concave bridge. Other parts of the complex consist of gardens.
Whenever you go there, you can always find many people. You come in the very early morning, and you'll find many elderly people practicing Tai-chi under the melody of flute. No wonder why they live so long. You come during the day, and it's full of visitors. There's always something going on there; exhibitions, concerts, performances, festivals... You come in the evening, and it's the popular hang out place for Taiwanese youth and couples. Young people will be practicing their hip hop dances, and couples will be enjoying the quietness of the place. Just walking around the complex takes some time, and it's also good place to get lost in thoughts and wander around aimlessly... It was one of the places I loved to take my visitors.
More photos;
View from the stairs that leads to Chiang Kai Shek's mausoleum. Notice the ornaments on the grass lanes on the sides. You can also see how huge the square is.
Labels: Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall, Taipei, Taiwan
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posted by Aibek D. at
5:08:00 PM
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