Sight-seeing: Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall

Undeterred by the light rain, today I decided to hit another tourist spot which had not yet made my list. Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall (http://www.yatsen.gov.tw/) is easily reached from the MRT station by the same name on the blue line, or you can take a cab to 505 Jen-ai Road, Section 4.







Situated in central Taipei, the hall is easily visible from Taipei 101 because of its enormous bright yellow roof. From many vantage points, photos of the hall gives it the appearance of sitting at the feet of 101, although 101 is really a 10-15 minute walk away depending on traffic lights.







Porches seems an odd word to describe the wide verandas lining the outside of the hall, but for want of a better descriptor, several dance groups were practicing along the porches. In front of the hall a small fair was set up. Not quite in the sense of a New Zealand fair, it was mainly just a few lines of stalls. In New Zealand, in my mind, it takes a horizontal bungee to make a fair worthy of its name - perhaps I'm showing my country roots. Although, for accuracy, the horizontal bungy always came second in coolness to the tractor rides around the paddock at the annual Sunday school summer holiday party. When I say tractor rides, I mean a sack tied by a length of rope onto the tractor. Kids sit on the sack and then get tugged along like a sled by the tractor around the pasture, cow pats and all. So painful, yet so fun.



Anyway, back to the hall: the crowning glory of the outside of the hall, aside from the well maintained gardens, is the impressive entranceway with pillars and a sweeping roofline.







Just inside the entrance, the hall houses a large bronze statue of the hall's namesake, with a changing of the guard every hour on the hour. A well-attended sight of absolute precision and spiffy gun-spinning moves (just see the intense concentration in their eyes).















The hall also houses an exhibit, gift shop, library, auditorium, and other facilities.







To the left of the entrance hall is a small gallery which is a good starting off point if it's your first visit to the hall. At the end of the gallery is a small gift shop - convenient for picking up souvineers if you have overseas guests, as well as postcards.







For stamp enthusiasts (such as myself) several of the display cases have philatelic items, and the giftshop also sold themed Taiwan stamp packs.







In the centre of the gallery was a small cinema, showing at 10am, 12pm, 2pm and 4pm. The movie was in mandarin with mandarin subtitles, but you might still find it worth a few minutes viewing to watch some of the old footage (and the locals seemed to find the seats comfy enough to take a nap, I will withhold the photo evidence to protect dignitas!)







One last feature of the hall I'd like to mention are the number of artworks displayed in its corridors - art buffs might find a few things they were glad they caught. Here is one that caught my art-illiterate eye.