2-28 Peace Park, Taipei

The 2-28 Peace Park commemorates the atrocities committed by the Taiwanese government against innocent civilians beginning 28 February 1947 and ending several months later with tens of thousands of dead.

The 2-28 Peace Park in central Taipei was completed on 28 February 1997.

Today February 28th is a national holiday when all Taiwanese citizens remember the dead.

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228 Memorial Peace Park (Ererba hepinggongyuan) (二二八和平公園) is also known as Taipei Park (Xingongyuan). It is located in downtown Taipei. The park is named for the 228 incident that occured February 28, 1947 throughout Taiwan. The park is interesting enough to walk around; there is the 228 Memorial, an interestingly shaped monument, as well as five Chinese kiosks set in a small pond. The 228-Museum is also on the grounds of the park.

The 228 Memorial Museum, in the 228 Memorial Peace Park, has some exhibits and information on the events in late February and early March of 1947. Admission is NT 20, NT 10 for students. The museum is open from 9:00 to 17:00, and most exhibits are in Chinese, though there is a video here shown in English and Japanese.

In much of the Republic of China, the 228 incident is a touchy subject.

In 1945, the Republic of China regained the island of China from Japan after 50 years of Japanese occupation. However, many locals were not any more pleased with their new government than their old. On February 27, 1947, an argument between a few people in Taipei ended up in a shooting. This caused widespread rioting across the island of Taiwan starting on February 28. (I'm going to skip the details, since even now there's no common consensus on what really happened and who was behind which side during this conflict). To sum it up, the island was filled with violence until March 8, when Nationalist troops restored peace to the island. Over 10,000 people died (the sum of both sides). I'll leave it at that; any visitors to the museum and memorial can decide for themselves who (if anyone) was really at fault for the incident.

Taipei New Park is said to be the place to go to see the Chinese at play. This is one of the oldest parks in Taipei, it was built in 1899.

N.B. I am told that Taipei New Park, as it was known when I was there, is now known as 2-28 Park.

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This park commerates the massacre on February 28th, 1947 that began the long period of Marshall law in Taiwan. Today the park has a museum about the incident and also houses the National Taiwan Museum