The 228 Peace Memorial Park just south of the Taipei Main Train Station area is a lovely little park, hosting two museums, several pagodas, ponds, & Chinese style gardens. The name of the park, as well as the 228 museum are set as a reminder to one of Taiwan’s darkest times, February 28th, 1947.
Wikipedia introduces the park:
228 Peace Memorial Park is a historic site located in the Zhongzheng district of Taipei, Taiwan. The park is home to the Taipei 228 Memorial Museum, housed at the site of a former radio station that operated under Japanese and Kuomintang rule. The park contains a number of memorials to victims of the 228 Incident of 1947, including the Taipei 228 Memorial that stands at the center of the park. The National Taiwan Museum stands at the park’s north entrance. The park also features a bandshell and exercise areas.
So what was the 228 incident?
The 228 Incident, also known as the 228 Massacre, was an anti-government uprising in Taiwan that began on February 27, 1947 and was violently suppressed by the Kuomintang (KMT) government. Estimates of the number of deaths vary from ten thousand to thirty thousand or more. The Incident marked the beginning of the Kuomintang’s White Terror period in Taiwan, in which thousands more Taiwanese vanished, were killed, or imprisoned. The number "228" refers to the day the massacre began: February 28, or 02-28.
I recommend browsing through the Formosa Betrayed book (PDF) from 1965. There is also a recently featured movie with the same name which I haven’t had the chance to see yet. Initially I thought it’s strange that there are so many online copies of the movie in Chinese VOD sites, but when you really think about it – why would the CCP hold back on the KMT violent crack-down on the local Taiwanese?
(Video embedded removed from the Chinese sites. Just look up the Chinese name on Baidu – 被出賣的台灣)
The main memorial statue…
Lovely Chinese pagodas and ponds…
Foot Massage path…
And people quietly practicing Chinese martial arts…
More from the blogosphere on the peace park, the 228 incident and the movie :
Love it. I challenged my brother the athlete to walk barefoot on the stone path…