Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall

An immense monument to the late dictator Chiang Kai-shek, designed by architect Yang Cho-cheng in a conscious echo of the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum in Nanjing and built between 1976 and 1980 in the heart of Taipei. It fronts onto a vast public square flanked by the National Theater and National Concert Hall and features twin 89-step staircases marking Chiang’s age at his death in 1975. The square became the principal venue for Taiwan’s democracy movement during the late 1980s and was renamed Liberty Square (自由廣場) under president Chen Shui-bian in 2007, though the hall itself remains contested terrain.