Taiwan Trip 3rd Day: Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall + Shilin

How could we not visit Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall 中正记念堂on our second visit to Taiwan. This monument is built in memory of Chiang Kai Shek. With the white walls and blue tiled roof, it looks like a fortress. There's two sets of stairs to the main entrance, each with 89 steps to represent CKS' age at the time of his death. The memorial consists of his bronze statue, watched over by two motionless guards who changes shift at every hour in a rifle twirling ceremony. We almost missed that ceremony as I couldn't help taking many pics of this beautiful place.

Looking opposite the Hall is the Liberty Square 自由广场

A panoroma grabbed from Wiki..to the left of the Memorial is the National Concert Hall, to the right is the National Theater

国家音乐庭

国家戏剧院

Guards practising their drills



Both halls looked the same until you look closely at the board

I like this pic.. taken by larling's iPhone

Moving closer to the Memorial

We saw a Singaporean couple who asked to help them take a photo.

They offered to help us take a pic in return. So nice

After dashing up the 89 steps of stairs, we managed to catch the ceremony:

After the ceremony, the next shift of guards have to stand motionless for the next hour.

They can't even have facial expressions, scratch their back or fidget around.

CKS bronze statue

Xie xing

View from the top

The place wasn't very crowded as we went on a wkday.

Serenity

Lunch was at foodcourt at Taipei City Hall station

We shared a beef teppanyaki set

This costs around SGD8 bucks.

Then we went to Eslite Flagship Store at Xin Yi which has 8 storeys of collections!

First time we went to a bookstore so many times. On our last day we even went back to buy Romance of Three Kingdoms. We didn't buy it on the 3rd day as I already bought two books and it's very heavy bringing it around

Dinner was at Shilin Night Market, which is at Jiantan MTR station, not Shilin Station.

Upon arriving, we chiong to our all-time fav stall selling humongous 鸡排

Raohe's famous Pepper Bun in Shilin!

A family of 3 making buns together..

Very heartwarming.

Their son still in his sec sch uniform, helping out at the stall after school

I believe such kids will never grow out of hand; children who go through the hardships with their parents will understand that money is not earned easily

Back to Ximending..

This Partyworld building is just opposite our hotel.

We wanted to try their Partyworld, but we procrastinated and eventually we dropped the idea

Next: Day 4 Hello Kitty Sweets Restaurant + Wufenpu