Shilin Official Residence


For 26 years, this two-storey mansion and its elaborate Chinese- and western-style gardens were part of the official residence of Chiang Kai-shek and his wife Soong Mei-ling. Today the entire estate is a lovely public park (open 8am to 5pm Tuesday to Sunday), often with flower exhibitions. The house, though interesting enough, merely displays the rather humdrum domestic life, and middlebrow tastes, of the Chiangs. The free audio guide is more than a little obsequious about the house's master and mistress.


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