By Saaya.M
In this article, I will introduce you four main historical sites which are popular for tourists in Taipei. Despite its short written history, Taiwan has many historical places you should visit.
Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall
Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall (CKS Memorial Hall) is a very popular tourist destination in Taipei. This place is not only famous for tourists to visit but also for locals to be relaxed, dance, exercise, and relax with friends and family. Its huge square (Liberty Square or 自由廣場 in Chinese) is often used for holding activities and for children to play. Chiang Kai-shek was the president of the Republic of China, and this memorial hall was built to show respect to him after his death in 1975. After five years of construction following his death, CKS Memorial Hall was officially opened on his birthday.
In the main building they placed a huge 6.3m statue of Chiang Kai-shek, you can enjoy the changing of the guard ceremony, an exhibition hall of historical relics of CKS, CKS library where you can read and watch materials related to CKS. These places are open for everyone without charge. In the area there is also a national theatre on the right side and a national concert hall on the left side of the main building. The design of these three buildings are inspired by Temple of Heaven in Beijing, China, and the number of main building’s stairs 89 represents the age at death of CKS. This massive square is now used for the memorial hall; however, it used to be land for the Qing Dynasty army.
CKS memorial hall has a significant meaning for Taiwan’s democracy since protests beside CKS memorial hall played a big role in the rise of democracy. The liberty square was used for those protests many times in the past.
Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall
Sun Yat-sen was a Chinese politician and the provisional first president/a founder of the Republic of China. He was also the first leader of the Kuomintang (Nationalist Party of China), and people call him “Father of the Nation”. This museum was built in 1972 to celebrate his 100th birthday to share his philosophy and knowledge. This facility is open to the public, and people can use the space for cultural and academic events. The museum’s height is 30.4m, and its width is 100m. It has a beautiful design of Tang Dynasty architecture. There is a huge size of Sun Yat-sen statue (5.8m) in the main hall; its weight is about 16.7 tonnes. Like CKS memorial hall, you can see the changing of the guard ceremony in front of this statue. It is held every hour from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. for 10 minutes.
In the hall, there are also many exhibitions about Sun Yat-sen. You can learn the history of him and the Republic of China. They often have other exhibitions such as art and culture and it never gets visitors bored. Basement of the building is used as a culture centre and library. They have lessons for calligraphy, camera, painting and Japanese language in the centre. Anyone is allowed to enter the library if you go through a required process there.
There is also a big park called Zhongshan park with a cafe nearby, so you can enjoy a beautiful walk and have a break during your trip. This whole area is quite big and it is used as a space for dancing, morning exercise, and a playground among locals just like CKS memorial hall, and this place is an important part of their lifestyle.
National Palace Museum
The National Palace Museum is the most famous museum in Taiwan among tourists since they can see old Chinese treasures from the forbidden city in China. Those treasures were brought by Chaing Kai-shek in 1948 from the original palace museum which was built in 1925 in China. After the civil war, most of the treasures in China were destroyed yet those treasures saved by Chaiang Kai-shek are still in Taiwan. To see these precious antiques, many people visit this National Palace Museum. It is regarded as one of the world's four popular museums including the Louvre Museum in France, the Metropolitan Museum in U.S.A. and the State Hermitage Museum in Russia. The museum has nearly 700,000 items and about 6,000~8,000 of them are displayed. They change their exhibitions regularly every three to six months besides the main hundreds items.You can see quite old Chinese works - the oldest one was from about 8,000 years ago. Tourists can learn ancient Chinese culture and history and how it influenced the culture today.
This museum is very popular and it’s always very crowded. We recommend you to visit around lunch time or late afternoon to avoid the crowds. They have a clerk on the 1st floor, either baby strollers and wheelchairs rental. From 2016, visitors are allowed to take pictures without flash inside the museum. You can also get meals and rest in this area since there are restaurants (故宮晶華/府城晶華), cafes (閑居賦/富春居) and a Chinese garden (至善園). At the shops on the B1 and 1F of East side of the main building (Exhibition I) and 1F of the the NPM library building (Exhibition II), they sell souvenirs such as stored items replicas, stationeries, T-shirts, cookies, and so on.
National Taiwan Museum
Taiwan has two ‘national’ museums in Taipei. Since the National Palace Museum is very popular, this National Taiwan Museum is often missed by tourists. However, if you want to learn about Taiwanese history, culture, tribes, geology and minerals, you should not skip this museum. This museum was built in 1908 during the Japanese period, and is known as Taiwan’s oldest museum. The original name of the museum was “The Taiwan Governor Museum” to commemorate the inauguration of the railway line between Keelung (基隆) and Kaousiung (高雄). In the museum you can see the actual steam locomotive which used to run through Taiwan at that time. This museum is located inside the 228 Peace Park, which is very close to Taipei main station. After several years, they expanded the size of the museum, and the buildings you can see today were built in 1915. These buildings were designed by the Japanese architect Ichiro Nomura, and they have a distinguished Graeco-Roman style.
The entrance tickets are very cheap at $30 NTD, so it’s worth going when you are in Taipei. This museum has five sections: 1) Feature exhibitions 2) International exhibitions 3) Touring exhibitions: the museum organizes exhibition tours chosen from among the special exhibitions 4) Permanent exhibitions (Taiwan's pre-history culture / Taiwan's indigenous culture) 5) Outdoor exhibitions (bronze buffaloes, collection of stone tablets, relics of the giant stone culture, old cannons, and old locomotives).
Besides this main building near Taipei Main Station, there are two other halls also display exhibitions.
Taiwan Land Bank Exhibition Hall of National Taiwan Museum
Very close to the main building, this used to be the site of the Taipei branch of Japan Kangyo Bank. It became the museum in 1910 and today you can see the gallery of large natural historical artefacts, such as tarbosaurus, velociraptor, triceratops and huanghetitan. Because of these exhibitions, this hall is often called “the Dinosaur Museum” and it is popular among children. In this hall, it also exhibits the past of the Land Bank such as precious historic relics and manuals, land measuring instruments, land reform historical records, land bonds, public land sale manuals, and financial business machines.
Nanmen Park of National Taiwan Museum
This site was used for the Taipei Nanmen Factory and it was transformed into a museum in 2013. It displays things from the old camphor factory. You can also learn about the architectural features of each building in the park, the archaeological discoveries which were made during the restoration, and the contributions of the craftsmen. In the park there are many endemic plants and temperate plants which you can enjoy, and also a space for families where they can learn about urban ecology through the story of the “Kingdom of Camphor Trees”.
Information:
CKS Memorial Hall Ticket price: Free* Access: By MRT: Take the Red Line or the Green Line to Chiang Kai-shek (C.K.S.) Memorial Hall station (中正紀念堂). Address: No. 21, Zhongshan South Road, Zhongzheng District, Taipei City, 100 Opening hours: Main hall: 9:00~18:00 Park: 5:00~24:00 The changing of the guard ceremony: 09:00, 10:00, 11:00, 12:00, 13:00, 14:00, 15:00, 16:00, 17:00 Website: http://www.cksmh.gov.tw/ * Feature exhibitions can cost extra charge
SYS Memorial Hall Ticket price: Free* Access: By MRT: Take the Blue Line to Sun Yat-sen (S.Y.S.) Memorial Hall Station (國父紀念館). Address: No. 505, Section 4, Ren'ai Road, Xinyi District, Taipei City, 110 Opening hours: 9:00~18:00 The changing of the guard ceremony: 09:00, 10:00, 11:00, 12:00, 13:00, 14:00, 15:00, 16:00, 17:00 (10 minutes for each) Website: http://www.yatsen.gov.tw/tw/ * Feature exhibitions can cost extra charge
National Palace Museum Ticket price: NTD $350/adult, NTD $150/student with valid ID, Free/infants Access: By MRT and Bus: Take the Red Line to Shilin station (士林), go outside of the station and take the bus R30 (紅30)*. Address: No. 221, Sec 2, Zhi Shan Rd, Shilin District, Taipei City, 111 Opening hours: Sun. - Thu.: 8:30~18:30 / Fri. & Sat.: 8:20~20:30 Close: Every Mondays Website: www.npm.gov.tw/ * Busses generally leave every 30 minutes on weekdays until 7p.m. and 15 minutes on weekends until 6:55p.m.
National Taiwan Museum Ticket price: NTD $30/adult, NTD $15/student with valid ID Access: By MRT: Take the Red Line NTU Hospital station (台大醫院), get out from Exit 4. By walk: Get out from Exit Z4 of the Taipei Main Station and walk to the south for about five minutes Address: Main hall: No. 2, Xiangyang Road, Zhongzheng District, Taipei City, 100 Taiwan Land Bank Exhibition Hall: No. 25, Xiangyang Rd., Taipei City, 100 Nanmen Park: No. 1, Sec. 1, Nanchang Rd., Zhongzheng Dist., Taipei City, 100 Opening hours: Main hall & Taiwan Land Bank Exhibition Hall: 9:30~17:00 Nanmen Park: 9:30~17:00 Close: Every Mondays Website: http://www.ntm.gov.tw/
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