Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
money, lending facilities and bank machinery. The fossil display area includes full rep-
licas of a tyrannosaurus, triceratops, sauropod and fossil elephants from Penghu that you
can examine from toes to nose from the staircase that winds round the atrium.
2-28 Peace Memorial Park
PARK
(Èrèrbā Hépíng pinyin Gōngyuán; NTU Hospital)
Established in 1908, this was the first urb-
an public park in Taiwan built on European models. Known as Taihoku (Taipei) Park un-
der the Japanese, then Taipei New Park under the Kuomintang (KMT), its present name
hails from 1996 in recognition that one of the pivotal events in Taiwanese modern history
began here: the massacre known as the 2-28 Incident. The incident (
Click here
) involved
an uprising in which Taiwanese protested against the post-WWII Chinese government set
in place by Chiang Kai-shek. In the months following, tens of thousands of people were
killed.
In the centre of the park stands a memorial to 2-28 and in the southern end of the park
a museum dedicated to the event. But otherwise this lovely little area of old trees, pond,
pavilions, pathways, bandstands, shrines and historical relics is used just as its founders
intended: as a meeting place, a hangout and a general refuge from the city.
2-28 Memorial Museum
MUSEUM
(Èrèrbā Jìniànguǎn; admission $20; 10am-5pm Tue-Sun; NTU Hospital)
Located inside the
2-28 Park, the 2-28 Memorial Museum offers an explanation of the events of the 28
February 1947 massacre and the repercussions that followed. Acknowledgement of the
2-28 incident was a pivotal part of Taiwan's transformation from dictatorship to demo-
cracy.
Though there is little in the way of English signage in the museum, a very good multi-
lingual walking tour device is available. In addition to the 2-28 Incident itself, displays
cover the drive for self-rule in Taiwan in the 1920s and '30s, and the role radio played in
society at the time. The museum building itself was once the Taiwan Radio Station, and
it was from here that KMT officials tried to calm the masses as panic swept the island
(for more,
Click here
)
.
Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall
MONUMENT, MUSEUM
(Zhōngzhèng Jìniàn Táng; 21 Zhongshan S Rd;
9am-6pm;
;
Chiang Kai-shek Memorial
Hall)
This grandiose monument to authoritarian leader Chiang Kai-shek is a popu-
