Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall (中正紀念堂)

Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall is a Taipei icon that is full of people day and night enjoying the magnificent architecture of the hall as well as Liberty Square and the adjacent Concert Hall and Opera House. The whole premises are quite large, and at sunset time you can walk around to get perspective from the lines of trees, the ponds, and the flowers with the buildings in the background.

The best view can be had from the main hall itself. You can climb the two sets of 89 steps to get a higher, open view of the skyline that is given meaning by the grand Liberty Square Arch. There are also two floors with their own little terraces you can walk around on the way up. The center-angle view from the middle of the very top platform is the most popular for photographers it seems, but in order to see the best views of the sunset you might need to move around to a more suitable spot.

The pictures you take from the Memorial Hall will almost certainly have people, tourists and locals alike, in them. When I first got to Taipei I preferred non-people sunset pictures, but actually I’ve gotten used to having little people in the foreground that contrast rather nicely with the large-scale beauty happening in the background.

Getting to Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall is a breeze. There’s an MRT station right next to the hall where both the Red Line and Green Line stop.