Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and Liberty Square

The Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall is one of Taipei's best-known landmarks. The white hall with its blue octagonal roof stands at the eastern end of a large open plaza, reached by a long flight of steps. The plaza in front, now called Liberty Square, is entered through a monumental gate and is flanked by the National Theater and the National Concert Hall, two buildings in classical Chinese palace style.

The scale is what photographers respond to. A wide lens makes the hall look almost weightless at the end of its axis; a black-and-white treatment under a stormy sky turns it into a study of geometry and tone, white stone against dark cloud. After dark, the lit gate of Liberty Square reflected in water gives a calmer, more symmetrical picture.

The last frame steps away from the memorial to another traditional-style hall in Taipei, with sweeping orange roofs. Together they show how much of the city's monumental architecture borrows from older Chinese forms: glazed tiles, upturned eaves and strong central axes, rebuilt at a modern scale.

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Photos: falco, transitjan, tingyaoh, niccolino on Pixabay, used under the Pixabay Content License. These are not my photographs.