Presidential Office and Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall

An interesting walk around central Taipei.  The first building I came upon turned out to be the Offices of the President.  Whilst walking there I came upon the street scene in the photo below.  What particularly caught my eye was the ladies shoe above the linear clock.  Is this a street that is full of shops selling ladies shoes?

I actually arrived at the rear of the Office of the President and needed to walk around it to view the frontage.

If you know something of the history of Taiwan you will recall at various times it has been colonised by the Portuguese and Japanese.   The Portuguese also had Macau on the Chinese mainland.  Many older Taiwanese have good memories of the Japanese as they undertook numerous infrastructure projects.

The last to arrive were the supporter of Chiang Kai-shek who fled the Chinese mainland after losing the civil war against the communists of Mao post WW2. Many of the ethnic Taiwanese weren't very pleased with the arrival of Chiang and his followers.  However they were battle hardened troops and ruthlessly crushed any opposition.  Chiang didn't just leave China with his followers.  He also took much of the wealth of China and he used some of that on infrastructure in Taiwan.  Interestingly, Chiang's objective was to recapture the mainland and claimed the mainland was part of the Republic of China (ie, Taiwan).  Of course the Chinese Communist Party claims the reverse.   Modern Taiwanese no longer believe China is part of Taiwan.  They want their democratic independence.

Chiang Kai-shek died in 1975 and the government decided to build a memorial in his memory.  Work start on the project a year after his death.  The memorial consists of a large open square with a white multi archway at one end and a domed four sided hall at the other.  On the other two sides are two large buildings. One is the National Concert Hall and the other the National Theatre. 

The square was renamed Liberty Square in 2007 and the inscription was also added to the main gateway 

Main Gateway

Concert Hall

Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall

After walking up the steps you enter the hall where there is a large statue of Chiang seated.

Two guards are present

The hall was full of visiting school children who were either busy taking or attempting to listen to their guide.  I think I was the only person to look up,

The National Theatre

It wasn't until I walked around the exterior of the building and down another set of stairs that I realised the entire underneath of the hall is a museum and exhibition centre.

An interesting find