Taipei Travel

The Grass Mountain is not a mountain, but a valley encircled by three mountains (Datun, Qixing and Shamao mountains). When China’s Nationalist Government relocated to Taiwan in 1949, the then-President Chiang Kai-shek moved into the quiet Grass Mountain Chateau, previously a guest house of Taiwan Sugar Company. Perched strategically on the mountaintop, the chateau commands a view of such natural phenomena as the Guandu Plain, Shezidao and Mt. Guanyin. Grass Mountain was renamed as Yangmingshan in 1950 in memory of the great philosopher Wang Yang-ming.

The 4,275 m2 Chateau has a Japanese-style main parlor which was common in the 1920s. Occupying an area of 584 m2 with aged trees by its gate, the main parlor is an embodiment of nostalgia that consists of the hallway, lobby, reception room, study room, bedroom, master bedroom, living room, guest room, kitchen, atrium, balcony, etc. The four smaller structures surrounding the main parlor, which had been the dormitories of Mr. Chiang’s bodyguards, were converted by the city government into artists’ studios as part of an aesthetic space. Eventually, those visiting the chateau will be able to engage themselves in unobstructed dialogues concerning ecology, culture and arts.