A Trip to See The Monument of The Man Who Lost China

Day 9 : Friday 22 Nov 2013 (PART 1)

I took months long sabbatical from blogging, the new year brought me new challenges to deal with. My son is attending a different school, it is a new environment for us and it is something that we both have to deal with together. My fingers were itching to touch my keyboard but there was simply no time for it!

So here it is now, my entry on our 9th day in Taipei.

Today was our last day to roam around Taipei, we wanted our children to see the famous monument in Taiwan, everyone who has been to Taipei boasted about this place. We talked about him, the Generalissimo, the man who is said to have lost China, the man who is loved by some and hated by others. In short, he was a complicated person with a complicated history. 

This man, Chiang Kai-Shek 蔣介石, was once revered as a near-god in Taiwan, where he led his Chinese Nationalist regime after being defeated by Mao Zedong's Communists on the Mainland in 1949. But almost a third of a century after his death, the memory of the old dictator has been effaced, with the removal of the generalissimo's statues and the renaming of many streets and even Taipei's international airport. These were done during the presidency of Chen Shui-Bian.

Some people think that Chiang Kai-Shek must be described as a man who enabled the Republic of China to survive. Taiwan has survived as the Republic of China with the about-face decision of President Truman on the outbreak of the Korean War to keep the island as an "unsinkable aircraft carrier" in the cold war, but without Chiang's retreat from the Chinese mainland with his 600,000 troops, the Republic of China would have perished in early 1950. 

How to get there:

National Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall (中正紀念堂)is situated near Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall MRT Station, along the red line.

Opening Hours: 

CKS Memorial Hall: 09:00 -18.00 daily

Freedom Square: 24 hours

Changing of the Guard Ceremony: Every hour; on the hour

Admission fee: Free

Directions: Take MRT to Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall (Red Line), Exit 5

A cloudy morning sky, crisp and cool November morning. We felt the chill, the winter wind.

A closer look of the monument.

Buildings nearby looked like residential buildings.

A huge area, a nice place to relax. Nice garden too, lush of green, good for the eyesight.

Another building on the left side looking out from the memorial hall.

Here he is, the statue of 'The Generalissimo'; loved and revered by some and hated by others.

The kids wonder how does a soldier who has to stand like that for an hour, relieve himself when nature calls?

Could not prevent himself from posing. He and the Generalissimo have the same initial.

Joe is mesmerized by the miniature building.

The woman Ernest Hemingway once called "the Empress of China" Soong May-ling or Soong Mei-ling 宋美齡, also known as Madame Chiang Kai-shek or Madame Chiang, once famous round the world as the beautiful and extremely powerful Dragon Lady wife of China's autocratic ruler, lived the last years of her life in seclusion in a large apartment overlooking Gracie Park on the Upper East Side before dying on October 23, 2003 at the age of 106.

A little tired and hungry ... at 10.30 am!

This is the MRT Station on CKS Memorial Hall ground. Take Exit 5 to memorial hall.

Super Clean!

We decided to go back to Dihua Street for the famous fish ball vermicelli noodle soup.

Waiting to be served.

We came early and had the honour to witness the ladies preparing our food.

Love the clean and tidy food outlet.

Fish ball noodle soup. It taste delicious!

One of the ladies preparing the fish ball.

The menu. Reasonable pricing!

Fellow customers patronising the shop.

V-one Vogue hotel is just straight ahead.

The small park right across the road from the food outlet.

There it is again, the V-one Vogue hotel is just straight ahead.

The main reason for going back to Dihua Street was to visit the Puppet Theatre Museum. We felt that, our children will appreciate the oriental crafts more than the artifacts in the National museum. So my next post will be about our trip to Lin Liu-Hsin Puppet Theatre Museum, 林柳新紀念偶戲博物館.