Photo: Comments-Sun Lu, Production-Kiki Susie
Audio: Narrator-Millet Barrel, Production-Green Susie
Cover picture: TimeDepot. Twn/Shutterstock
Friends who have been to Taipei should be familiar with the Yuanshan Hotel. Located on an independent hill in Shilin District, it is a China palace-style building with red walls and golden tiles, surrounded by mountains and trees, which is very comfortable.
As a famous scenic spot in Taipei, it attracts tourists from all over the world. People come and go, but unfortunately the stones in this mountain can't talk, otherwise the story won't stop.
Yuanshan Hotel in Twilight
Image: Charliegarciar/Shutterstock
Yuanshan Mountain is the first gentle slope in Taipei Basin. It is said that ancient times was called Dalongshan because of its dragon-shaped geomantic omen.
Although I don't believe in the layout of Feng Shui, this place of Yuanshan is really an anecdote.
It is indeed a very good feng shui location.
Figure: Google Maps
The first anecdote is related to the surname Zheng Chenggong. It is said that there lived a carp essence in the Keelung River at the foot of the round mountain. Zheng Chenggong crossed the river by boat, and the carp made waves, which hindered the military ship from marching.
Zheng Chenggong pulled out his sword and threw it into the river. After the carp essence was stabbed, it never dared to make trouble again. Therefore, this water area was named "Tan Jian". It is said that every fifteenth day of the lunar calendar, the sword inserted in the water still shines.
In fact, Guo Ye never left Tainan during the election campaign in Taiwan Province Province. These stories were just made up because of the love of later generations. But the fabrication happened at the foot of the round mountain because of the geomantic omen here.
The picture shows the sword of Tan Jian Temple on the former site of Yuanshan Mountain. 1937, the Japanese expanded the shrine in Taiwan Province and forced the temple to move.
Photo: Wikisharing
Tan Temple was originally moved to Dajia Primary School, and then moved to the current site of Dazhi, No.6, Lane 805, Bei 'an Road, Bei 'anli, Zhongshan District, Taipei.
Photo: Wikisharing
During the Qing dynasty, the surrounding area of Taipei became a tea producing area, and the business was prosperous. Many rich people saw the geomantic omen of the Central Plains Mountain and built western-style luxury houses here. The French embassy also plans to move here and buy a piece of land early to prepare.
However, the signing of treaty of shimonoseki changed the fate of Taiwan Province Province, and the new Japanese governor immediately took a fancy to the treasure-house round mountain in Long Mai. He did not hesitate to put pressure on the French, exhausted all means and overcame all difficulties to seize the right to round mountains, and took this opportunity to build a shrine in Taiwan Province.
In Taiwan Province, it is said that this shrine is not named casually. In the Shinto management system in Japan, the level of the shrine in Taiwan Province is the highest "official currency meeting", which means that this shrine is supported by the special funds of the Japanese government, and the gods worshipped must be related to the Japanese emperor or the royal family.
The temple of Taiwan Province was built on the round mountain.
Photo: Wikisharing
There really is a Japanese royal family related to Taiwan Province Province. He is the uncle of Emperor Meiji, and his name is Prince Kitashirakawa Yoshihisa. 1895 After the treaty of shimonoseki was signed, Prince Nengjiu personally led troops to receive Taiwan Province Province. However, a few months later, he got malaria and died in Tainan.
Subsequently, the death of Prince Nengjiu was deified and became the god of Taiwan Province Province in the Japanese occupation era. 190 1 year, with the support of the then governor Kodama Gentaro, the Taiwan Province Provincial Shrine was started and completed in the same year1year, with a total area of about five hectares.
Old photos of the shrine
Photo: Illustration of Travel Notes of Taiwan Province Province edited by Kumajiro Nishihara (version 1936).
The whole map of the shrine is divided into three platforms from bottom to top. The temple is located at the highest place, with a worship hall in the middle and a bronze statue of torii and sacrificial animals at the bottom.
Photo: Wikisharing
In Taiwan Province's shrine, Prince Kitashirakawa Yoshihisa's memorial tablet is tied to the memorial tablet of the God, and the anniversary of his death is also designated as the main sacrifice day of the Taiwan Province Provincial Shrine, and a grand sacrifice ceremony will be held, and the whole Taiwan will have a day off every year.
Therefore, from the rich area, the round mountain has become the highest spiritual shrine for the popularization of the Japanese emperor. Taiwan Province people assimilated by Shintoism came to worship in the Round Mountain, and the number of them quickly increased from the first few thousand to nearly 100,000.
Old photos of the festival
Photo: Wikisharing
1945 After the Japanese defeat, Taiwan Province Province returned to the embrace of China, and the shrine symbolizing the emperor's rule was quickly demolished (as were the Lushun shrine in the northeast and the Korean shrine in Gyeonggi Province).
The distant mountain did not return to loneliness because of this. On the site of the Taiwan Province Shrine hosted by Song Meiling, a hotel dedicated to receiving foreign guests has sprung up. Formerly known as "Taiwan Province Dunmu Friendship Society", the first president was Miss Kongjiaer Kong Lingwei.
Today, the Grand Hotel hangs pictures of foreign guests who have received it in the past.
Photo: Grand Hotel
At first, the Yuanshan Hotel didn't have the main structure you see today, but took the original Japanese shrine building and demolished it for use.
Torii, the shrine, serves as the hotel gate, and the shrine is managed as a swimming pool villa in the atrium. The main body of the hotel was eventually built into a Chinese three-story building, and the antique Chinese design and decoration were also amazing at that time.
Some buildings in Taiwan's Jingu Palace continue to be used as affiliated buildings of Yuanshan Hotel.
The picture shows foreigners sunbathing in front of the pool.
Photo: Qiu Hui Library.
The Stewardess stills were released on 1959, when the hotel gate (the first generation) was still torii.
The newly completed social room is used by senior officials and foreign guests, and the highest level is1Eisenhower, the US President who visited Taiwan in 1960. The most extravagant guest is 197 1 King of Saudi Arabia who visited Taiwan, and the tip for the service staff is Rolex.
Therefore, if readers have been to the Yuanshan Hotel and seen the old photos displayed on the wall, they will know that everything before 1973 was taken in a three-story hotel.
At first, the Yuanshan Hotel had only three floors.
Photo: Grand Hotel
What we are seeing now is the Grand Hotel on the 14 floor, which was completed on June 1973 and June 65438+ 10. It is a landmark building in Taipei. But at that time, people could only overlook the beautiful scenery and it was difficult to enter. As an international reception place for senior officials, Yuanshan Hotel is still only open to dignitaries.
Until 1998, due to financial difficulties, Yuanshan Hotel decided to open to the general public.
At present, this one was rebuilt by 1973.
Figure: totogo1015/shutterstock
Mi Tong will accompany readers to visit this Huayuanshan Hotel.
Photography: Jack Hong/Shutterstock
Stand in front of the hotel gate, please turn back first. The beautiful scenery of the Taipei basin can be seen from all directions, and it is charming both during the day and at night. Along the winding Keelung River, on the left is Songshan Airport, the gateway of North Taiwan Province Province, and planes sometimes cross the sky.
Let's take a look at Fokker 50, which is about to land at Songshan Airport.
Figure: TimeDepot. Twn/Shutterstock
Photo: Broadcom horvath /Shutterstock
After you enjoy the natural scenery of this geomantic treasure-house, we can turn around and enter the hall to blow air conditioning.
Welcome to the Grand Hotel.
Figure: Kobby Dagan/Shutterstock
As soon as I entered the hall, my eyes were full of bright red, which was specially prepared for the Yuanshan Hotel. This is the only place where you can find it. Its name is "Yuanshanhong". The festive colors stand out against the China Palace Lantern.
The special color inside is "Round Mountain Red"
Figure: Xiaomi barrel
Palace lantern details
Figure: Xiaomi barrel
Please look up at this time. Just above the lobby of Yuanshan Hotel, there is a plum blossom-shaped three-story algae well. With red as the bottom, the algae well depicts 23 dragon playing beads and 16 phoenixes flying in the sky in gold, symbolizing "the dragon and phoenix are auspicious and auspicious".
Hall caisson
Figure: Xiaomi barrel
Here we first reveal:
Dragon is the most prominent theme of Yuanshan Hotel. Not only are caissons centered on dragons, but also columns, cornices, arches and so on. The hotel guide says that all together, there are more than 200,000 dragons in one * *.
(I feel that this number is also broken casually. After all, dragons are everywhere.
There is a two-story platform directly below the algae well in the hall, on which there is a big basket of blue flowers, which is a good choice for tourists to take photos as a souvenir.
I picked it myself, the orchid in Yuanshantang.
Figure: Xiaomi barrel
On the left is the cafeteria and coffee bar, where there are often live music performances; On the right is Yuan Yuan, a restaurant famous for its Jiangsu and Zhejiang cuisine. The most famous item on the menu is Song Meiling's royal snack "Red Bean Muffin", which people have never eaten before. In addition, under the care of Kong Lingwei, a native of Shanxi, Yuanyuan's Shanxi pastry is also very distinctive.
There are also some foods that Song Meiling likes.
Figure: Xiaomi barrel
Figure: Black 1950/Shutterstock
After the introduction of the hall, please move the stairs. Between the first floor and the second floor, there is a huge bronze sculpture "The Duke of Zhou Rites and Music". Upstairs, the second floor is divided into two wings, one wing leads to the guest room area and the other wing leads to the Hong Kong-style restaurant "Golden Dragon Hall".
Duke Zhou's rites and music map
Figure: Xiaomi barrel
Photography: Eduardo Fihlman /Shutterstock
When we go to the Golden Dragon Hall and pass the cloister, we will see a small shop selling souvenirs of the Republic of China and a photo wall full of photos of celebrities. There is a sense of just visiting, which links the past scenes with history.
Did you find Gong Li? Figure: Xiaomi barrel
After reading the old photos, I walked past a door and saw a fountain in the shape of a golden dragon. The tall faucet spits out a stream of clear water, which accumulates in the pool and has lucky coins invested by tourists. This rare golden dragon with three claws has a much longer history than Yuanshan Hotel and is one of the relics left by Taiwan Province Shrine.
The golden dragon left by the shrine in Taiwan Province Province.
Figure: Xiaomi barrel
In the lower left corner of the old photo is Jinlong.
Figure: Network
On the right hand side of Jinlong is a Hong Kong-style restaurant. You can see the Taipei basin from the window of the restaurant, and you can see the scattered high-rise buildings during the day. You can enjoy the bright lights at night. In the bathroom near the Golden Dragon Hall, there are many imitations of ancient paintings in the National Palace Museum in Taipei. I heard an anecdote in a bathroom, and a painting artist from the mainland claimed to have found an ancient painting as an original.
If a reader had been here more than ten years ago, he might have heard another episode. That is, the Yuanshan Hotel is not a "five-star" but a "five-plum blossom". That's because Chiang Kai-shek was most taboo about the word "five stars", so he refused to participate in the hotel star rating and had to create his own "plum blossom class".
It's all round and red inside and out.
Photo: Liu /Shutterstock
Last year, the Grand Hotel opened a special tourism project. You need to make an appointment first and then meet in the lobby on the second floor.
The hotel guide will take us to an ordinary wall next to the souvenir shop and begin to explain. In the past, there were so many dignitaries in Yuanshan Hotel that they could evacuate quickly and prevent accidents. The designer once secretly designed two secret passages in the hotel. There were not even a few insiders in the design drawings. But after decades, the accident never happened. The secret passage was shelved and gradually abandoned.
It was not until last year that the Huayuanshan Hotel renovated the secret passage on the west side and opened it to the outside world.
The secret passage appeared.
Figure: Xiaomi barrel
So, when we tourists were stuck in a traffic jam in a dead end, a wall suddenly opened, cold and moldy air came on our faces, and a secret staircase appeared in front of us.
Figure: Xiaomi barrel
At first glance, the wall of this secret passage is curved and covered with spikes. The tour guide explained that spike is a noise-reducing paint used in war, which has the function of explosion-proof and fire prevention. Half of the stairs are bent into slides, which are wide enough for a person to barely sit down or use sliding luggage. If you want to slide all the way down, it's quite thrilling. For the safety during the tour, the slide part will not be open for experience.
Figure: Xiaomi barrel
Winding down the steep and slippery stairs, the dim light made the atmosphere a little nervous. The total height of this secret passage is 85 meters, and the drop is as high as 6 floors. But because it is not straight, looking back, the exit has disappeared, and there is no end in front, which seems to have been gone for a long time. I finally came to the bottom, and an iron gate was tightly managed. The tour guide said that behind the iron gate is the dense forest behind the round mountain, so I can't open it. Tourists stop here and can only go back the same way after taking pictures.
Coming back from the entrance, everyone suddenly returned to the hustle and bustle from the atmosphere of war, and everyone felt a little unreal.
Figure: Kobby Dagan/Shutterstock
If you haven't finished, you can explore it again at will after the trip to the secret passage. At the end of the second floor, there is a "First Lady's Coffee", which used to be the place where May-ling Song enjoyed afternoon tea, but now there are special souvenirs for sale.
Or you can choose to stay at the Grand Hotel. Maybe you can visit the Presidential Suite of the Grand Hotel again. There is a rare Nine Dragons Wall, with May-ling Song's original collection of Chinese paintings hanging on it, as well as the butler service provided by American President Eisenhower, as well as Jiang Jingguo's exclusive haircut and beauty treatment. These are the grand occasions of the past here.
Yuanshan Hotel official website can be booked.
(The hotel asks the backstage to pay the advertising fee. )
I'm really sorry, but the tour of the round mountain for ordinary tourists is over. In fact, we can only see less than half. The Yuanshan Friendship Building behind the main building is not open to the public, and only members can enjoy it.
The membership price of Yuanshan Friendship House, the individual membership fee is about 60,000 RMB per year, and the extra deposit is 30,000 RMB; Family membership fee is about RMB 654.38+million per year, plus a deposit of RMB 30,000. Each member also has monthly fee, minimum consumption, swimming pool cleaning fee, etc. They spend a total of 1 10,000 RMB per month. It's really impossible to knock if you're not a powerful person.
Official website's pictures look very luxurious.
In addition, there are undeveloped scenic spots, such as the secret passage on the east side of the hotel and a small villa in Kong Lingwei. I won't go into details here, let's leave it to the next article.
Please don't leave the hotel in a hurry after the hotel visit. There is still something to see through the parking lot. Come down from the hotel gate and walk into the driveway, and you will find two stone lions on the left and right. This stone lion sculpture is different from other places. It looks more domineering. This pair of stone lions, like the Golden Dragon, is left over from the Taiwan Province Shrine and has a history of one hundred years.
The stone lion in front of the parking lot is actually a stubborn dog of the Taiwan Province Provincial Shrine.
Photo: Glenn Photography /Shutterstock
And bronze horses.
From the driveway into the corner of the parking lot, there stands a carved stone in Yu Youren's cursive script, on which are written four big characters: "Qin Jiansheng". This stone tablet is also a relic of the Taiwan Province Shrine. It was originally called the "Monument to the Sacrifice of Arms", but Yu Youren erased the original inscription before mentioning the words.
It turned out to be the source of the "weapons monument" of Taiwan Province Shrine.
Photo: Library of Taiwan Province Provincial University.
Finally, Yu Youren writes calligraphy in the parking lot of Yuanshan Hotel.
Figure: Xiaomi barrel
As the "Long Mai" of Taipei, Yuanshan silently witnessed the flow of the world like a cloud, quietly hiding touching stories. When the epidemic is over, if you have a chance to visit this place, please give Yuanshan more time to listen to her story.
Bronze Cow Living in Taiwan Province Shrine
Figure: Xiaomi barrel
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