Taiwan Trip part III

Here comes the long awaited third post of my Taiwan Trip. I have to admit that since the trip was like 2 months ago, i find its kinda hard to remember all the details. Well, hopefully the rest of the posts will come swiftly in no time, i cant stand myself going through another 2 months of procrastination.   

Second part of our second day of the Taiwan Trip started off with the visit to the infamous Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall (中正紀念堂). Chiang Kai Shek was the successor of SunyatSen after he died in 1925. He served as the President of the Republic of China in 1954 and moved his government to Taipei, Taiwan. 

The memorial hall is located in the Liberty square (自由広場), its a big squarish compound surrounded by a white color entrance ark, A Chinese National Theatre and a National Concert Hall at each sides and the memorial hall is facing the ark. The compound is so big (240,000 square meters) that it takes around 5-8 minutes just to walk across to the opposite site. 

Peter was greatly amazed by the Gigantic ark. Yes, we were trying out the panorama shooting mode and the output was kinda hilarious. 

Now, my turn. This is one of the Chinese Theatre or National Concert Hall (they look exactly the same anyway), and the opposite one in panorama mode.

And here i am sitting infront of the memorial hall

The building looks magnificent in white, the wide space and white tiles accentuate its magistic and i gotta say this is how a national monument supposed to look like. 

And then we started our journey of climbing up the thousands steps (okok, its only 89 steps) of staircases to the hall where the famous statue located. It almost reminded me of our very own Batu Caves 292 staircase.

The famous Chiang Kai Shek Bronze statue (the picture does not justify how big is the statue, its about 3 floors high in its actual size) and the changing of the guards which take place every hour, attracting many visitors.

There is this inscription on both side of the wall which says: The purpose of life is to improve the general life of humanity and The meaning of life is to create and sustain subsequent lives in the universe. If you have watched the recent Jacky Chan 100th movie 1911, you will understand the statement better. Its basically corroborates the ideology of democracy. The fact that the Chinese democracy was achieved through shedding of blood and sacrificing of lives, the statement sounds much more meaningful than just a fancy slogan.  

Underneath the hall (behind the staircases) is a big museum which showcases the history of Chiang Kai shek. There were so much to see and digest, from official documents, letters, to the chair he sat and the car he drove! but sadly its all written in Chinese.

So, peter can only admire all the pictures in order to figure out the historical events

The impressive miniature of the CKS Memorial hall

While we are viewing the display in the museum, i heard a loud noise from the hallway and discovered that the changing guards actually walk all the way from the museum area (underneath) up to the main hall (above) where the statue is. The funny thing is they will march all the way in and take a lift to go up, while maintaning their perfect posture and no smile at all time. how cool is that!

oh, the guards are pretty cute too. for some reason, they all look the same to me. Maybe that's their selection criteria, not too tall nor too short, slim built, short hair, dark skin and small eyes (seriously!) 

Overall, Peter and I enjoyed the visit to CKS memorial. I wish our country have a memorial hall like this, not the 'istana' type which cost billions to built but only meant for private use.

Disclaimer: This is a picture grabbed from Google

P/s: Last picture to share here, this has become our favourite thing to do for the rest of our Taiwan Trip. ;)