Taipei Grand Hotel is a traditional architectural hotel located on Zhongshan North Road in Taipei City, is a long-established and famous Chinese and foreign hotel, adjacent to Jiantan Park, is one of the landmarks of Taipei City, and has now become one of the famous buildings for more and more tourists to punch in Taiwan.
The architectural style of the Grand Hotel is somewhat similar to the style of Beijing's Zhengyangmen, and it is this unique hotel that played a major role in the 1950s and 1990s, when the hotel did not accept ordinary people, but only used to receive high-ranking dignitaries, celebrities and foreign guests.
1. Grand Hotel
Few people know the mysterious owner behind the restaurant, starting with the defeat of the Kuomintang in Taiwan. Chiang Kai-shek realized that the civil war was at a disadvantage and, on the advice of his adviser Zhang Zhaojin, began operations in Taiwan in early 1949 as a place of retreat. The first to be sent to Taiwan was Chen Cheng, Chiang Kai-shek's most trusted good friend.
After arriving in Taiwan, Chen Cheng modified his weapons according to Chiang Kai-shek's intentions, devoted himself to stabilizing the overall economic situation, and built airports and large military bases to meet the needs of the army's withdrawal from Taiwan in the future. In June 1949, Chen Cheng called Chiang Kai-shek in Taiwan and inquired about the construction of Chiang Kai-shek's private residence. In early July, a plane landed at Taipei's new airport, and Chen Cheng, who had received a notice, went to the airport and met Kong Lingjun, the second miss of the Kong family, who participated in the mission.
Second, build a human hole Lingjun
The reason why Kong Lingjun is called the "Great Demon King of the Mixed World" is because of his arrogant and lawless personality. She has been spoiled by her parents since she was a child, and coupled with Song Meiling's pampering of her, her personality has become more pampered and obedient. Because he did not know the height of the sky, he often ran into some heinous disasters outside.
At the age of 14, she dared to intimidate Chiang Kai-shek and Soong Tzu-wen. When you encounter unsatisfactory things and people outside, you will pull out a gun and kill people without a word. She had shot and killed traffic policemen in the streets of Nanjing; played real CS in the park with Wang Longyun's son in Yunnan; and for her dog, Rice Field, she even dared to use a gun to drive officials off the plane, and in her eyes there was no one but her aunt.
Kong Lingjun did two things as soon as he came to Taiwan. One is to help her aunt find a mansion to live in, and the other is to transfer the business to Taiwan. After she got off the plane, she yelled at Chen Cheng, who knew the origin of this witch, and Chen Cheng had always been afraid of her title of "Chaos Demon King", and as long as she asked, she would try to meet and meet all her requests.
Third, the reasons for the construction of the Grand Hotel
Kong Lingjun was powerful and established a business network belonging to the Kong Song family in the four major fields of Taiwan's military, government, business and private sectors, and established his own connections. For the construction of the official residence, Chen Cheng has made some design plans, but she is still not satisfied, thinking that the budget of several million is too small.
Chen Cheng was embarrassed, saying that the funds in power were already dwarfed, and there was no extra money to build a luxurious palace with great significance, and some money should be spent where it was spent. As long as the leader's official residence is decent, there is no need to be too luxurious, but Kong Lingjun does not agree with his statement at all.
On this day, Kong Lingjun and his assistant went to a park on Hulin Road in Taipei City. During the Japanese presence in Taiwan, it was the backyard of the Governor's residence. Since 1945, the park has been taken over by the Governor's Residence. After the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry took over, it became the National Forest Horticulture Experimental Park. In this park, terraces, pavilions, stone gardens, and ponds are all indispensable. The whole garden can even be said to be a medium-sized Suzhou garden.
This park is really rare. There are several ready-made villas, surrounded by mountains on three sides, and the environment is quiet and convenient. After Kong Lingjun played for a while, he pointed to the stone garden and said, "I think this is a good place!" Chen Cheng saw that Kong Lingjun was fully engrossed in this and immediately asked Chiang Kai-shek for advice. At this time, Chiang Kai-shek had already been overwhelmed by the chaos of the war and Li Zongren's "forced palace", and agreed without much thought.
Chiang Kai-shek's Stone Forest began to renovate the old site and change it to "Chiang Kai-shek Stone Forest", but Kong Lingjun took most of the money. So why did Kong Lingjun do this? Kong Lingjun believes that doing business in Taiwan requires a place to eat, live and have fun, so he plans to use the money to build a large hotel in the north of Zhongshan, and the location is set on Zhongshan North Road. Originally a shrine, it was said to have good feng shui, so it was built as the Taiwan Grand Hotel.
Fourth, the construction process of the Grand Hotel
In Kong Lingjun's view, this hotel should not only be of high quality, but also reflect its unique cultural connotation. Just when she encountered this problem, the renovation of the "Shilin Building" was completed, and her uncle and aunt also followed the army to Taiwan. In the early days of the Kuomintang's defeat, the management was chaotic, and various contradictions emerged one after another.
Chiang Kai-shek knew the truth about the strength of the army, so he urgently sent troops to quell the contradictions. However, many middle- and lower-ranking officers and their families were temporarily resettled in a place known as the "Village of Dependents" because some of the funds were stolen by Kong Lingjun and the military resettlement houses had not yet been fully built. They were built on those tin blocks as a refuge for most of the army's families.
A few years later, the children in this place learned the military management model of their elders and founded two major gangs in Taiwan, the Jianghu Gang, which later became the "Four Seas Faction" and the "Bamboo Gang". Chen Cheng had no choice but to tell Chiang Kai-shek about this. When Song Meiling asked Kong Linjun what to do with so much money, Kong Linjun's answer was very relaxed, and she said with a straight face, "I just want to build a big hotel that can represent my aunt's identity!" ”
Now chiang kai-shek has lost the mainland, but from the bottom of his heart he wants to continue to build Taiwan into a "country." The Republic of China is still recognized by the United States and many other world powers, so diplomatic exchanges will be required in the future, and there will certainly be a need for foreign guests on behalf of the Republic of China. However, the money stolen by Kong Lingjun has been spent elsewhere, and the maintenance work of the Taiwan Grand Hotel is still slowly progressing.
When Song Meiling learned that the situation was not good, she borrowed NT$200 million from the Bank of Taiwan and asked Kong Linjun to complete it as soon as possible in the name of the "Taiwan Bullet Curtain Association". Regarding the design of the hotel, Chiang Kai-shek believes that there should be traditional Chinese characteristics, and Song Meiling told Kong Lingjun what Chiang Kai-shek meant. Kong Lingjun originally wanted to build a European-style hotel, but she was very reluctant, but she did not dare not listen to her aunt.
Fearing that she would be held accountable for misappropriating the funds, she took a picture of Beijing's Zhengyang Gate from the newspaper and instructed the staff to build it accordingly. For other styles, a lot of dragons and phoenixes are used, as well as traditional Chinese totems to bless, it does not have to look beautiful, as long as it has characteristics.
5. Summary
From the 1950s to the 1990s, Kong lingjun was the actual head of the hotel. In the 1980s, she moved to the United States with her aunt, but did not give up control of the grand hotel. She flew food from the big hotel to the United States. Every year on the eve of the Lunar New Year, the hotel is said to be busy for at least a month to catch up with the food needed for production.