Chiang Kai-shek statue park
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A site that is more weird and bizarre than truly dark: a park filled with amassed statues and busts of Taiwan’s late former dictator Chiang Kai-shek (see history). Next door is the mausoleum in which his real body has been lying in state since 1975. But this is no longer publicly accessible. Still, the menagerie of Chiangs in the park is worth a visit in its own right.
>Combinations with other dark destinations
More background info: This place, Cihu, is where Chiang Kai-shek, Taiwan’s dictator from 1949 to 1975 (see history) had his favourite residence (cf. also Jiaobanshan). And it is where he still resides, so to speak, namely in the mausoleum where he is lying in state, on his orders, until such a time that his body can be repatriated to his home province in mainland China, once the Kuomintang have liberated the PRC from communism and reunified it with Taiwan (on Taiwan’s/Chiang’s terms, that is) … in other words: realistically he will probably never be buried and will stay in his black marble coffin for perpetuity (unless the PRC invades Taiwan and takes him away).
The mausoleum was vandalized on 28 February 2018 (a date with significance; see 2-28 Museum) with red paint, and ever since then the mausoleum with Chiang's sarcophagus has been closed to the public. The whole compound is also guarded by military – even as I only tried to catch a glimpse through the gate, I was shooed away by an armed guard.
The main, rather weirder attraction here, however, is something else now. In the park next to the mausoleum about 200 statues of Chiang Kai-shek have been assembled, allegedly “donated” by the places where they used to stand all over the country (in other words they got rid of them and dumped them here).
In the past, every public building, school campus and park had to have a Chiang statue or bust. This only changed when the country embarked on its route to democracy. Districts run by the DPP (the opposition party to the long-ruling KMT) were the first to discard their Chiangs. And the process accelerated once the DPP came to power in 2000. There are still plenty of Chiang statues in public places across the country, but it is the DPP’s declared goal to eventually get rid of the lot – though whether that is to include the big sitting Chiang sculpture inside the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taipei is questionable. The tall bronze Chiang I saw in a park in nearby Daxi, on the other hand, is probably doomed. So the collection at the statue park in Cihu is likely to grow further.
What there is to see: loads and loads of Chiang Kai-shek effigies, basically, in all manner of poses, colours and sizes.
Starting at the eastern end of the park, two sitting Chiangs flank a long picnic table in a manner reminiscent of Putin receiving foreign representatives before and during the start of the Ukraine war. To the north is one of the largest Chiangs here, again a sitting model, but hollow and with parts missing, in particularly his bottom. So he is hovering more than he’s sitting.
Moving on you pass clusters of Chiangs arranged in circles, some statues show him in generalissimo uniform, others in plain traditional civilian clothes. Quite a few have him waving a hat, others have him clutching a walking stick, And a couple of installations are encircling him with rails like a cage. One cluster of standing Chiangs is especially densely packed together, a full throng of nearly identically looking Chiangs.
One group of Chinags of very different sizes, making the smaller ones look like child Chiang while the biggest ones seem like giants, are lined up in a way that seems like they are queueing for something (in the photo gallery below I named the final image “God save the queue” in allusion to a satire magazine’s headline about the queueing public to see the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II after her passing in 2022).
It’s not just full-body Chiangs, standing or sitting, but there’s also a collection of Chiang busts. And he’s not just accompanied by more effigies of himself. There are also statues of his son and successor Chiang Ching-kuo as well as a couple of Sun Yat-sens (founder of the ROC – see history).
Moreover there are two sculpture groups that show Chiang surrounded by children. These are probably intended to underscore the “father figure” aspect of the benign-dictator image such statuary was supposed to bolster. But in a modern context, after so many cases of child abuse having come to light such groups now just feel dodgy.
Similarly, the two Chiang Kai-sheks on horseback seem like from a bygone era, when being literally on a high horse was considered glamorous.
Towards the western end of the park, is a military sculpture featuring no Chiangs or Suns, but a victorious fighter pilot figure giving the V-sign, a navy sailor with a torch and an infantry soldier whose facial expression seemed to be more scared that determined, all standing around a cream-coloured block with bas-reliefs of fighter jets, a navy ship and a tank.
By the car park is also a Cihu Visitor Centre, which apparently houses a small exhibition about Chiang Kai-shek (and his successor son) plus a cafe and shop, but I didn’t get to see those on my guided visit in January 2024.
Nor did I see the mausoleum – my driver stopped at the closed gate so that I could try and peek in and maybe catch a glimpse, but even before I got to the gate it opened and an armed guard quickly shooed me away. So I got back into the car and we drove off.
All in all I am glad we made it to the Chiang Kai-shek statue park – especially given that at one stage in the planning of this trip I was informed it was temporarily closed. Fortunately it wasn’t at the time I visited. It was one of the highlights of my 2023/24 trip to Taiwan at the lighter end of the dark-tourism spectrum.
Location: in Cihu in the Daxi District on the southern outskirts of Taoyuan City, northern Taiwan, ca. 25 miles (40 km) south-west of Taipei.
Google Maps locator: [24.8415, 121.2943]
Access and costs: a bit out of the way, but easy enough to reach by car, less so by bus; free.
Details: To get there you really need a car or to be on a tour. I went there as part of a day tour with a driver/guide from Taipei (see under Taiwan >practicalities). In theory you can also get get a bus, e.g. from Daxi or from Taoyuan, but it’s complicated and time-consuming.
If you come by your own (hire) car, take route 7 from the south-eastern end of Daxi. This takes you straight to the large car park at the site (50 NTD).
Opening times: daily from 8 a.m. to 4.45 p.m. – for the statue park, that is, the mausoleum with Chiang’s coffin is no longer accessible to the general public.
Admission free.
Time required: depends on how much Chaing-ness you can handle, basically … I spent a bit over half an hour there.
Combinations with other dark destinations: One Chiang Kai-shek statue that I found still standing in its “natural habitat” was in a park in Daxi, which is a ca. ten-minute drive away and a prime tourist attraction (see below). Also in this park was a large bas-relief featuring Chiang giving a famous speech. These may be doomed though, and could well also end up at Cihu. The former Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall at the park has been converted to serve new purposes (though still bearing his name – in Chinese characters).
The largest of all the Chiang statues is in a totally different location: inside the Chaing Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taipei. And this one has better chances of remaining in place for some time yet to come. Another Chiang-related site, though sans statue, is the Jiaobanshan Chiang Kai-shek residence. The latter also features an underground bunker and emergency command centre, just as at the now closed mausoleum and residence in Cihu.
See also under Taiwan in general.
Combinations with non-dark destinations: The area around Cihu is one of great scenic appeal – that’s why Chiang liked it here so much (but also because the place reminded him of his original home in mainland China).
The nearby town of Daxi used to be of great importance to the tea and camphor trade (until a dam project dried up its river and shipping ended, being replaced by lorries). The wealth generated through this is still visible in the “Daxi Old Street” (actually named Heping Road) with many an elaborate front façade of traders’ houses. These days it’s just a tourist trap, though, with souvenir and junk shops filling most of the buildings. To the west and south of the street are a number of OTT temples, for those who are into such more or less traditional exuberance (I get quickly bored of them, personally). And to the south is Zhongzheng Park, where there’s a cluster of Japanese-era wooden buildings. There are good viewpoints over the (these days largely dry) riverbed and a footbridge crosses it to provide access to the large main car park for Daxi.
To the west of Cihu begins Taiwan’s high mountainous interior with summits up to just shy of 4000m (13,000 feet).
Another tourist attraction in the area is the Daxi Tea Factory, where you can view the old technology of manufacturing tea and a can buy the real thing in the integrated large gift shop.
