The Grand Hotel is one of the most recognisable buildings in Taipei: an enormous 14-storey palace in Chinese imperial style, with sweeping yellow tile roofs, red columns, and an interior of marble staircases and giant red lacquered doors. It was built between 1952 and 1973 at the personal direction of Soong Mei-ling, the wife of Chiang Kai-shek, on the site of the former Taiwan Grand Shrine.
For years it was the country's only luxury international hotel and the venue for visiting heads of state. Day visitors are welcome — for an afternoon tea in the main lobby, a meal at the Chinese restaurant on the upper floors, or simply to wander the grand ground-floor halls. The hotel's secret air-raid tunnels can be visited on guided tours offered most weekends.