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FEATURE: Chiangs' mausoleums draw crowds again

Visitors line up to enter the reopened mausoleum of dictator Chiang Kai-shek in Dasi Township in Taoyuan County on Saturday. PHOTO: TSAI CHIA-YEN, TAIPEI TIMES

Early on Saturday morning, crowds of cars and tourists poured into Dasi (大溪) Township in Taoyuan County, where the mausoleums of dictator Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) and his son, former president Chiang Ching-kuo, (蔣經國) are located.

Chiang Kai-shek’s mausoleum is located at the Tzuhu Presidential Burial Place (慈湖陵寢), while the body of Chiang Ching-kuo, who died in 1988, was placed in a mausoleum in Touliao (頭寮), not far from his father’s resting place.

At the two mausoleums, veterans, with a renewed taste for nostalgia, returned to venues that had been closed since December, kneeling down with teary eyes in front of the mausoleums to remember the old days.

Meanwhile, outside the mausoleums, crowds waiting to pay tribute to the two former leaders amassed, prodded by vendors looking to sell their wares.

The temporary burial places of the two Chiangs, once prime tourist attractions, had lost some of their luster in recent decades as democratization gripped Taiwan and the authoritarian figures fell out of favor.

But better economic times may now return to Dasi following the reopening of the mausoleums, five months after the former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government closed the venues to public access as part of its campaign to remove public vestiges of the men, especially Chiang Kai-shek, who many see as a brutal dictator.

The reopening of the venues could be a financial bonanza for Dasi and the county.

Before President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) won the presidential election on March 22, Taoyuan County and Dasi had already geared up for the reopening of the venues amid hopes that they would again boost local tourism and inject NT$400 million (US$12.11 million) to NT$500 million into the local economy.

Tzuhu, originally called “Horn South Pond” because of its shape, was renamed by Chiang Kai-shek in memory of his mother because the scenery in the area reminded him of his hometown of Sikou in Zhejiang Province’s Fenghua County.

Chiang Kai-shek’s favorite residence was converted into his temporary resting place after his death on April 5, 1975, and opened to visitors.

The KMT-led Taoyuan County government has even turned the scenic “rear Tzuhu,” a previously restricted section of the park behind Chiang Kai-shek’s resting place, into a site for concerts or other public events in the hope of attracting more visitors and revenue.

That revenue could receive a substantial shot in the arm from Chinese tourists if talks between the Straits Exchange Foundation and its Chinese counterpart are sucessful.

“With the incoming administration’s plan to open up Taiwan to Chinese tourists in July, the cultural heritage of the Chiangs and their residences will become popular tourist attractions,” Ma, who began his political career as the English secretary to Chiang Ching-kuo, said in April.

In order to distance himself from the KMT’s negative image lingering from its autocratic past, Ma suggested in April that people in Taiwan should leave an appraisal of the historical roles of the two late presidents to the historians and allow their legacies to help develop tourism.
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