Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall

At the end of the avenue, on a white base, rises the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall: seventy metres of marble crowned by an octagonal roof of blue tiles. The white and blue echo the colours of the Kuomintang, the party Chiang led.

1A memorial for a president

Chiang Kai-shek led the Republic of China on the mainland and, from 1949, in Taiwan, where he ruled under martial law until his death in April 1975. That same year the government decided to build a grand memorial here, on land once occupied by barracks. The design was by the architect Yang Cho-cheng, who also created Taipei's Grand Hotel, and it opened on 5 April 1980, the fifth anniversary of his death.

Each of the two staircases has 89 steps: Chiang's age when he died, counted in the traditional way.

Upstairs, in the great hall, a bronze statue of the seated leader looks out over the plaza.

2A building under debate

For some, the memorial honours a head of state; for others, it commemorates an authoritarian ruler responsible for the crackdown after 228 and for the White Terror. In 2007 it was renamed National Taiwan Democracy Memorial Hall, and in 2009 it got its old name back. The debate over its future remains open as part of Taiwan's policies on memory and transitional justice.

3What to look for

• The octagonal blue roof, with its golden finial.
• The two staircases of 89 steps.
• The view back: the Liberty Square gateway framed between the theatre and the concert hall.