The large red building in this picture if The Grand Hotel. It is an elegantly traditional style hotel. It began as a much smaller hotel in the 50s while construction of the tall structure you see now was completed in the 70s.
On top of being a high quality hotel, it also has a very nice athletic club with a gym, huge swimming pool, and tennis courts. It's quite expensive to be a member though.
In the 90s there was a fire on the top few floors. After the hotel was fixed, they turned the dragon statues on the roof inwards as to show they are protecting the hotel from a future fire.
It's pretty much an old guard hotel. It used to be where many foreign dignitaries would stay when the came to Taiwan. But now a days more people stay in the more modern hotels that are in the center of the city. It is still pretty popular with Japanese tourists, and when sumo wrestlers come to Taiwan, this is where they stay.
I personally find this hotel quite charming. The interior is very traditional. Taiwan is actually a pretty young place and there isn't much history here. Sometimes I get a bit turned off by places which try to artificially look historic, but the Grand Hotel always gets a pass by me. You can see that it was done with care.
When my parents came to Taiwan this is where they stayed. They seemed to enjoy their stay. Inside is a pretty good dim sum restaurant. It's where I first tried shark and also where I came to find that there is one meat bun from Hong Kong which I really enjoy but unfortunately is harder and harder to find in Taiwan.
It's also pretty popular to film tv shows and movies here. Not just Taiwanese movies, but Japanese and Chinese as well. In fact this was one of the settings of an episode of the American tv show, but for more on that you’ll have to come back tomorrow…
Oh but before I go, I must tell you why I titled this post “Radio Taiwan International.” The white building in the picture is Radio Taiwan International. I know this because I used to live near the hotel and on the bus ride home it’s the name of the last stop before mine. So I always knew when I heard “Radio Taiwan International” it was time for me to get up and press the button to get off. But also it has gotten stuck in my brain, so now I can never take the bus anywhere without at some point hearing in my brain “Radio Taiwan International.”
