Liberty Square, National Theater and Concert Hall

You have passed through the great white gateway and are standing on Taiwan's most symbolic plaza. To your left and right, like twin palaces with yellow roofs, rise the National Theater and the National Concert Hall, opened in 1987. But what matters most here is what happened on this ground.

1Forty years of martial law

In 1949, in the midst of the Chinese Civil War, the Republic of China government declared martial law in Taiwan and soon afterwards moved its seat to Taipei. Martial law lasted until 15 July 1987: almost four decades of one-party rule, censorship and persecution of dissidents, a period known in Taiwan as the White Terror.

2The Wild Lily movement

In March 1990, thousands of students staged a sit-in on this square for several days. Their emblem was the white Formosa lily, and they demanded reform: direct election of the president and the renewal of an assembly whose members had held their seats since the late 1940s. President Lee Teng-hui met their representatives and convened a national conference on reform.

In 1992 the legislature was elected in full for the first time, and in 1996 citizens chose their president directly at the ballot box.

The gateway once read 大中至正, a reference to Chiang Kai-shek's name; in 2007 the inscription was changed to 自由廣場, «Liberty Square», and so it has remained.

3What to look for

• The five arches of the gateway and the central inscription.
• The yellow roofs of the theatre and the concert hall.
• The plaza itself, a regular venue for festivals and state ceremonies.