Changing Guards at Taipei Martyrs’ Shrine

It was a gorgeous blue sky day with a pleasant climate. On the way back from Nei Hu, we decided to visit the Martyrs’ Shrine and nearby scenery. The Martyrs’ Shrine in Taipei is a magnificent Chinese architecture with the look of the Hall of Supreme Harmony in Beijing's Forbidden City. It has a well maintained environment and a quiet and solemn atmosphere. Of course, we won’t miss the famous honor guard changing ceremony that takes place every hour!

Martyrs’ Shrine was built in 1969 on a beautiful hillside of Qing Mountain, overseeing the Keelung River. It covers 33,000 square meters of grass field. It offers free admission.

The shrine is dedicated to the 390,000 soldiers killed in the service of their country during the War of Resistance against Japan and Chinese Civil War.

Here is the inside of the main hall. We were told not to go in, but photography is allowed. The President leads the staff conducting a public worship in the spring and autumn of each year inside this hall.

Here is the back of the Shrine along with the beautiful mountain. It is planned to expand the Shrine in this mountain side in the near future.

Walking along the square hall ways, we stood and paid our respect to statues of those who gave their lives for the nation and read his/her life story under this magnificent Chinese architecture building.

Two military soldiers guard the main entrance to the Shrine, and two other guards the main gate.

I would like to elaborate these soldiers who have rigidly trained to stand as the expressionless wax statues. The weather was pleasant; however, with an hour standing under the direct sun, anyone could still sweat. Next to the on-duty solider, there is always an off-duty solider nearby who wears white shirt, black pants and black tie. He sprayed water to the soldier’s face with a spray bottle to reduce his heat and sweating. I saw that scene from distance, was not able to capture with my camera!

A tourist stared the solider in the face to see if he would blink, I thought that was quite funny. The solider remained still and showed no expression on his face.

Another highlight of the Shrine is the changing guard ceremony. With the rigid standing like that, soldier takes turn in every hour.

You can see on the pictures that the white uniform Navy honor soldiers were ready to exchange with the Air Force honor soldiers who wear blue uniforms with white belts and Army honor soldier with yellow belt.

The ceremony takes place in the beginning of each hour. It attracts lots of tourists. It begins at 9:00am, and ends at 4:40pm.

We surely enjoyed the visit. This is a great place to learn some history and features of traditional Chinese architecture. The honor guard changing sparks a special event, definitely worth to visit!

PS: Happy Lantern Festival ! Please also see the previous post about how the Sky Lanterns are released on January 15 of the Lunar New Year! Read More