圓山大飯店

Grand Hotel Taipei

Useful Information

Location:	No. 1號, Section 4, Zhongshan N Rd, Zhongshan District, Taipei City, Taiwan 10427. (25.078913, 121.52652)
Open:	All year daily 9:30, 10:30, 14:30, 16. Reservation mandatory. [2026]
Fee:	Hotel Guests free. [2026]
Classification:	Secret Bunker
Light:	Electric Light
Dimension:
Guided tours:	D=1 h, Max=20.
Photography:
Accessibility:
Bibliography:
Address:	The Grand Hotel Taipei, No. 1, Section 4, Zhongshan North Road, Zhongshan District Taipei City, 104427, Tel: +86-2-2886-8888. E-mail: Guided tour hotline, Tel: +86-2-2886-1818. E-mail:
As far as we know this information was accurate when it was published (see years in brackets), but may have changed since then. Please check rates and details directly with the companies in question if you need more recent info.

History

1952	Hotel opened.
1995	a fire destroys most of the roof and the upper floors.

Description

Of course, we do not list the 圓山大飯店 (Grand Hotel Yuanshan, Grand Hotel Taipei), but the Grand Hotel Tunnel below. General Chiang Kai-Shek retreated to Taiwan in 1949 and began plotting an eventual takeover of China. His wife Soong Mei-ling commissioned the Grand Hotel as a place to host foreign dignitaries. The architecture is quite stunning, a 12-story building with the gilded tiles and red vermilion columns is considered one of the finest classical Chinese buildings in the world.

Below the hotel is an air-raid shelter of enormous size which even extends under the nearby parks. It is big enough to accommodate up to 10,000 people. The site was intended as a hideout for the government officials and important heads of state. We thus classified it as a Secret Bunker, although it was actually not a result of the Cold War, but of the two different regimes in China. The site was top secret and over time it was forgotten.

In 1995, a fire broke out and destroyed most of the roof and the upper floors. When workers started the repairs they discovered the secret escape routes from the hotel to the bunker. They found a 70 m long escape slide which leads down into the bunker. After the renovation was completed the tunnels remained closed to the public, there were occasional private tours. Lately the bunker was opened to the public, the tour shows the bunker, the slide, and the former residence of the hotel’s first general manager. The tours are named 東密道導覽文化之旅 (Dōng mì dào dǎo lǎn wénhuà zhī lǚ, Cultural Tour of the Eastern Secret Passage). The tours are offered only in Chinese, and so the official webpage is also available only in Chinese. As far as we understand the hotel guests get an "Eastern Secret Path Guided Tour Ticket". With this ticket they can make a reservation for free. It’s also possible to dine at the hotel, and for the spent money get a tickte for the tour. It’s not possible to simply purchase a ticket.