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History of Chungshan hall

       On November 12th, 1966, it was the 100th birthday of Dr. Sun Yet-Sen,except holding grand celebrating ceremony,President Chiang Kai-Shek had the idea of building a memorial building that would be deeply rooted in people and exist permanently so that Dr. Sun Yet-Sen’s achievements can be shown. Therefore, on September 1st, 1964, “The Preparatory Committee in Honor of Dr. Sun Yet-Sen’s 100th Birthday by People in R.O.C. was founded. The decision of building Dr. Sun Yet-Sen’s Memorial Hall was made at the time. Preparatory meetings were convened for many times. In February of 1965, at the 6th preparatory meeting, President Chiang Kai-Shek determined to build a smaller scale memorial building near the library of Institute for Defense in Yangmingshan and named it “Chungshan Hall”. Soon the “Committee of Constructing Chungshan Hall” was founded on February 20th, 1965. Hsiu, Tse-Lan, the architect was chosen to design the building.The construction work was responsible by Ret-Ser Engineering Agency of Veterans Affairs Council.

       Chungshan Hall is located in sulfur area. The heat of Geothermal was really intense.Besides, the soil was with unevenly hardness. It was mixed with soft soil and hard stones. At the time, the construction machinery was simple and rude. It multiplied the difficulties of the construction work.Luckily, all the construction workers were with utter loyalty to the country. They held the dauntless spirit of not hesitating to lay down and overcame all the difficulties to complete the building. From the construction starting date which was October 2nd, 1965 to the work complete on November 6th, 1966.It only took 1 year, 1 month and 4 days. Chungshan Hall, that was grand, magnificent and known far and wide, was completed.The duration of the construction work is so short that it built a new record. Besides, it was also a tough building to build. It was one of the most unusual building on the sulfur area around the world. On November 12th, 1966, President Chiang Kai-Shek held the grand inauguration ceremony of Chungshan Hall. It was the beginning of the history of Chungshan Hall.

       The total area of the base is 13,583 square feet. Total Gross Floor Area is 18,129 square feet. Chungshan Hall is a 34-meter-tall building. It was built based on the art of Chinese Palatial Architecture. It was also a classical building because it was built against the mountain and arranged by the slope of mountain. The exterior is magnificent and the interior is resplendent. Tier upon tier of the building is covered with green glazed roof tiles. The overhanging eaves are like eagles with spread wings, so lively and vivid. Its appearance was especially magnificent with the red roof and the white walls.Embassy Lounge is furnished with classical furniture. Chinese Culture Hall is with the conference function and its capacity is 1800 people. It was decorated with the paintings of Ming and Qing dynasties. The palace lanterns are with various designs. The ceiling was elegant with the finish of sandblasting and lithopone. The gorgeous pillars and the vivid and varied paintings on the wall are always elegant and amazing when you look at them. Along with giant marble circular pillars and the red carpet on the floor, it made the hall refined and luxurious. It is also the most typical building built during Chinese Cultural Renaissance Movement in Taiwan.

       After the Chungshan Hall was completed, the National Assembly moved here for conference.Chinese Cultural Hall became the exclusive conference center of National Assembly. From the 5th meeting of the first session of National Assembly, there were lots of meetings and extraordinary meetings. One of its main missions and achievements of National Assembly was to elect presidents and vice presidents in the hall, such as President Chiang Kai-Shek, President Chiang, Ching-Kuo and President Lee Teng-hui until the first direct election in 2000. The other achievement was holding the meetings of Constitution amending for 7 times and put in additional articles of the Constitution to fit the needs of modern Taiwan. It is the place to see the development of Taiwan Democracy constitutional government.Chungshan Hall is the place with historical meaning.

      Besides, Chungshan Hall was also an important place that the government held state banquet, convened meetings and received guests from all over the world. President Chiang Kai-Shek and the first lady and other presidents had met ambassador, guests from foreign countries and returned overseas citizens and treated them here.National Taiwan Library was the symbol of the Nation. No other building would be able to replace it. Pictures of its appearance were usually printed on the government’s value-represented paper, such as different version of New Taiwan Dollar, post stamps, revenue stamps, Aiguo lotteries…and so on.

      After the construction was done, the “Committee of Constructing Chungshan Building” was dismissed in March in 1967 due to the finish of the construction work.Executive Yuan founded “Chungshan Hall Management Office”, and it was the administrative region of Yangmingshan Administration Bureau.However, the building was not in Yangmingshan Administration Bureau’s administrative system, it was only responsible for the maintenance of the building.And the chief of Yangmingshan Administration Bureau took the responsibilities.Later, the building had been managed by many different government department.In 2012, it was switched to be managed by National Central Library and has become one of the branches, Taiwan Library. In 2013, it was promoted to be “National Taiwan Library.” to now.
Yangmingshan National Taiwan Library Restructuring List
Date Organization Position Director Affiliated Units Authority
1966.11.12 Committee of Constructing Chungshan Hall Director Chao Chu-Yu Institute of Defense Office of the President
1967.7.1 Chungshan Hall Management Bureau Director Chin, Chuang-Yuan Subordinate to Executive Yuan, in charged by the head of Yangmingshan Administration Bureau
1974.1.1 Chungshan Hall Management Organization Supervisor Chou, Hsueh-Ching Yangmingshan Administration Bureau Taipei City Government
1977.1.1 First Group of Yangmingshan Administration Office Supervisor Chou, Hsueh-Ching Yangmingshan Administration Office Taipei City Government
1980.1.1 Taipei City Chungshan Hall Management Office Director Chou, Hsueh-Ching   Taipei City Government
1986.7.1 Yangmingshan Chungshan Hall Management office Deputy Director concurrently Head of the Office Chou, Hsueh-Ching
Chang, Ting-Hua
Tseng, Yi-Shih
Ti, Te-Yin
Dr. Sun Yet-Sen Memorial Hall Department of Education
2012.5.20 Yangmingshan Chungshan Hall Management office     Taiwan Library of National Central Library Department of Education
2013.1.1 Yangmingshan Chungshan Hall Management office Chief Secretary concurrently head of the Office Wu, Ming-Yu National Taiwan Library Department of Education
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    The Architect Hsu Ze-lan

    October 2nd, 1965

    In honor of Dr. Sun Yet-Sen’s 100th Birthday and the Renaissance Movement of Chinese Culture, the government decided to build Chungshan Building.It was designed and under supervision by the famous architect, Hsiu, Tse-Lan.Ret-Ser Engineering Agency was responsible for the construction work.

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    Chungshan Hall

    November 6th, 1966

    Chungshan Building was grand and magnificent and known far and wide. It took only 13 months to build.

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    November 12th, 1966

    The inauguration ceremony of Chungshan Building was hosted by President Chiang Kai-Shek.The day was also Dr. Sun Yet-Sen’s 101st birthday. In honor of Dr. Sun Yet-Sen, the date was set as the first Chinese Cultural Renaissance Day.

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    Chungshan Hall’s First Open Day to Public

    November 13th, 1966

    It was the first day that Chungshan Building opened to public.There were five entrances to receive the visitors. There were tens of thousands of people visiting on the day. Visitors were in an endless stream and amazed at the design.

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    March, 1972

    From February 21st, 1972, the conference location of National Assembly was changed to Chinese Culture Hall of Yangmingshan Chungshan Building. In the same year on March 22nd, the fifth president and vice president were elected in the fifth meeting of the first National Assembly.

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    Chungshan Hall’s First Open Day to Public

    March 21st, 1978

    On March 21st, 1978, the 6th president and vice president were elected in the sixth meeting of the first National Assembly. Chiang, Ching-Kuo and Hsieh, Tung-Min were elected to be the president and the vice president.

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    March 21st, 1984

    On March 21st, 1984, the seventh election meeting of the first National Assembly elected the 7th president and vice president. Chiang, Ching-Kuo and Lee Teng-hui were elected to be president and vice president. The picture showed Kong, De-Cheng, the chairman of president election meeting and Kuo, chi, the deputy chairman of vice president election meeting. They were issuing certification of election to the president and vice president.

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    March 21st, 1990

    On March 21st, 1990, the eighth election meeting of the first National Assembly elected the 8th president and vice president. Lee Teng-hui and Lee Yuan-Tsu were elected to be the 8th president and vice president. The picture showed He Yi-Wu, the chairman of National assembly was presenting National assembly to award presidential seal.

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    The attendees of National Assembly were voting for additional articles of Constitution.

    April 22nd, 1991

    On April 22nd, 1991, the second extraordinary conference of the first National Assembly was convened. Additional articles No. One to Ten of the Constitution were passed. At the same time, Temporary Provisions Period of Communist Rebellion was abolished. The picture showed the attendees were voting for additional articles.

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    The 9th president and vice president Inauguration Banquet was held in Chungshan Building.

    May 20th, 1996

    The 9th president and vice president Inauguration Banquet was held in Chungshan Building.

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    The attendees of National Assembly were voting for additional articles of Constitution.

    From May to June of 1997

    The 2nd meeting of the third National Assembly amended additional articles of the constitution from ten articles to eleven artiles.

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    September of 2000, the 5th meeting of the third National Assembly

    September, 2000

    In September of 2000, the 5th meeting of the third National Assembly approved the constitutional amendment. The function of the National Assembly was thus weakened. The function and power of territory modification, impeachment, president recalled, constitutional amendment and so on will be charged by Legislative Yuan.On August 23rd, 2004, Legislative Yuan proposed the 7th amendment of constitution.It was about the reformation and abolition of the National Assembly.In May of 2005, temporary national assemblies were elected.On June 7th 2005, the bill of constitutional amendment was approved.On June 10th, the president announced the dismissal of the National Assembly. From then on, the National Assembly was in history.

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    President Chen, Shui-Bian visited Chungshan Hall.

    September, 2004

    President Chen, Shui-Pien attended the Youth National Affair Conference held in Chuangshan Hall.

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    September 26th, 2014

    President Ma, Yin-Chiu, vice president Wu Tun-I, Wu, Si-Hua, Minister of Education attended the Excellent Teacher Awards Ceremony of year 2014 in Yangmingshan Chungshan Hall in Taipei. They toasted to the teachers in State Banquet Hall.

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