I think the Grand Hotel is
- beautiful
- OK
- kitsch, but I love it anyway
- an eyesore
0 voters
This seems to be a love it or laugh at it building. What do those on Forumosa think of the appearance of the Grand Hotel?
It’s sooo Taiwan. Love it.
HG
It’s fab. It’s a fab hotel and it looks fab too. Fab fab fab.
Option 3, no question – although those soaring flying buttress eaves are truly spectacular. Inside, though… “faded glory” is the kindest description I could give. I also really hate the “old Taiwan hotel” musty smell that pervades the place.
I liked it when the top was engulfed in flames. Anyone remember that?
It’s nice, and the lobby is beautiful.
It’s really nice to see it at night from the subway. It has a nice location at the end of that ridge. Is it true that Nixon stayed there once?
Yes, I was there, watching it burning. It was quite a sight.
It lacks imagination in design. It could have been so much more. It is just a big Asian shed.
The interior is dark and horrible in daylight. A really tall well lit foyer might have saved it just a little.
Overall, a big dark and boring shed with a funny roof.
Like a shit shingled whorehouse built by whores.
One reason it burned was that they straightened the river and changed the fengsui.
The Grand Hotel is one of the most beautiful buildings in Taipei
(Feel free to take this as either a comment about the Grand Hotel or a comment about Taipei architecture)
[quote=“david”]The Grand Hotel is one of the most beautiful buildings in Taipei
(Feel free to take this as either a comment about the Grand Hotel or a comment about Taipei architecture)
[/quote]
White devil speak with forked tongue!
Yes, in 1965.
From the opening chapter of About Face: A History of American’s Curious Relationship with China, from Nixon to Clinton, by James Mann, reprinted in the New York Times:
It took me quite a long time before I actually worked out that it was a hotel. I used to think it was some sort of temple.
I heard 30% of the rooms do not have windows.
Also, after the fire they turned the dragons on roof around for better fungsui.
I think I read Eisenhower stayed there as well in 1960 when he came to visit.
The location makes it somewhat of a white elephant, its not easy for guest to walk out the door and have dinner/drinks anywhere nearby. I think for apperance, it kind of grows on you like Taipei 101. It could be worse, like the oddball foodcourt on Nanjing w. rd, the fine art museum, etc. I’m kind of partial to the new fubon bank building style of design and modern architecture like the building standing now where the Miramar hotel use to be.
The trails behind the hotel are pretty cool. I hike there often.
Nobody has mentioned the fact that MrsHill and I stayed there on two non-consecutive occasions.
I always thought it would be really spectacular inside, but the rooms weren’t any better than your average two-star hotel. What made it even worse is that it’s all quite old, and not in a good way. The carpet in the room seriously needed replacing, but it’s still kind of fun running around the hallways at night.
I like going to the Dragon Boat races every year and seeing the hotel presiding over the blessed event.
Correct me if I am wrong: wasn’t it built by the Japanese and modelled after a hotel that currently exists in Tokyo? The Imperial Hotel or something?
I don’t think it was built by the Japanese. It certainly looks nothing like the Imperial Hotel, either in its current nor its past (Frank Lloyd Wright-designed) forms. The Chinese motif is also pretty obvious. The Japanese connection might be the fact that the Grand Hotel stands on the site of the most important Shinto shrine in Taiwan during the Japanese colonial period.
I saw it 785 times from the outside, but never inside.
Locals say it is mostly for “tourists” and the roaches are the biggest population.
I guess it lost his “class” since time flew bye no?