Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall

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One of the famous landmarks and postcard pictures of Taipei is the Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall, I noticed. We didn’t originally plan to visit this place at first, judging from our tight schedule, but it so happened that the bus we’re on one day stopped at Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall and we decided there and then that we’d alight! Sometimes, the best plan is the impromptu one, isn’t it? You could plan and plan months ahead and end up not executing it but decisions made within seconds, voila! Anyway, we walked to the entrance of the memorial hall, which passed by a long path sandwiched by two green and flat lawns on both sides.

Front view of the majestic Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall

Back view of the hall

It was incredible how very huge the building was. We’ve always only looked at it from the pictures but seeing it up front was amazing. It was white on all sides with an octagonal roof in blue, taken from the colours of the ROC / Taiwan flag.

Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall map

Giant door at the entrance on ground floor

Picture of Chiang Kai-Shek

Concourse area on the ground floor

There are two ways to get to the main hall. One could either enter through the ground level or choose to climb the stairs up to the main hall. I didn’t notice it then, but apparently, there are 89 steps on the stair case, representing the number of Chiang was alive. Of course, we chose the easy way of entering via the ground level. The ground level has a library and museum documenting Chiang Kai-shek’s life and career and exhibits related to Taiwan’s history and development. From there, one could take the elevator up to the 4th floor, where the main hall was. Before that, we were lucky to spot some guards marching in their ever-so-smart uniforms across the concourse area. It must have been the changing of guards that occured every hour then.

Changing of guards

Miniature model of the Chiang Kai-Shek memorial hall

The main hall featured a giant bronze statue of the political leader, with him sitting in a relaxed position and smiling. There were also inscriptions of Chinese characters behind the statue, of which I couldn’t read. So if anyone is interested, do look it up from the Wikipedia page.

President Chiang Kai-Shek in bronze

Guard at the main hall

Main entrance of the memorial hall

From the main entrance, we had a good view of the landscape around the hall, and it was impressive how clean and proper how everything looked. The entrance gate was exactly in the middle of 2 buildings – the National Concert Hall and National Theatre, and the ROC flag was planted right in the centre. Loved the symmetry!

View from the top

Chiang Kai-Shek is also known as ZhongZheng

Landscape around the hall

Majestic Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall in the background

National Concert Hall

Chiang Kai-Shek must have made an incredible impact to the lives of the people that warranted a huge honour of such a fabulous memorial hall. This was clearly a man who didn’t just inspire when he was alive, but continues to do so even when he’s left the world. We definitely didn’t regret making that stop from our bus that day!

Flag of Republic of China (ROC)

Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall – the famous landmark of Taiwan

Getting there:

Take the MRT to Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall Station (just 2 stations from Taipei Main Station) and head to Exit 5.

*Note: Read the rest of my Taiwan Escapade here!