The Grand Hotel

Taipei, Taiwan. Located on Yuanshan hill in Zhongshan District, with south-facing rooms overlooking Taipei.

The Grand HotelTaipei, Taiwan

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Practical information

Address: The Grand Hotel
No. 1, Section 4, Zhongshan North Road
Zhongshan District, Taipei City 104427
Taiwan
Telephone: +886 2 2886 8888
Official website: grand-hotel.org
Best available rate: Check availability

500 guest rooms over eight guest floors, each decorated after a different Chinese dynasty; the presidential suite holds Chiang Kai-shek’s desk.
Restaurants including the Golden Dragon, Yuan Yuan and the Grand Steak House, plus the MEET by BAR MOOD bar.
Auditoriums, banquet halls and meeting rooms; two Cold War air-raid tunnels lie beneath the hotel.
Located on Yuanshan hill in Zhongshan District, with south-facing rooms overlooking Taipei.

9 dates, written by Grand Hotels of the World from the sources below.

May 1952
Wanting a hotel worthy of foreign dignitaries, Chiang Kai-shek founds the Grand Hotel on Yuanshan, on the former site of a Japanese Shinto shrine, at Soong Mei-ling’s suggestion.
1953 – 1963
Successive extensions add a pool and tennis court, the Golden Dragon Pavilion and Restaurant (1956), and the Jade Phoenix and Chi-Lin pavilions.
1958
The Shah of Iran becomes the first head of state to stay; later guests include Eisenhower (1960), Nixon, Reagan, Thatcher, Mandela and Lee Kuan Yew.
1968
Fortune magazine names it one of the world’s ten best hotels.
10 October 1973
The 87-metre palace-style main building by architect Yang Cho-Cheng is completed; it remains Taiwan’s tallest building until 1981.
August 1983
Philippine opposition leader Benigno Aquino Jr. spends his last night here before his assassination on 21 August.
28 Sept. 1986
The Democratic Progressive Party is founded at the hotel.
June 1995
A fire during roof works destroys the roof and upper floors; the hotel fully reopens only in 1998.
After the fire
The roof’s dragon heads are turned inwards as a symbol of protection against fire; inspections also reveal the two air-raid tunnels behind long-standing rumours of secret passages.