Grand hotel that makes Trump Tower seem drab
DONALD TRUMP threatened to cause a diplomatic rift with China when he received a phone call from Taiwanese president Tsai Ing-wen shortly after his election victory.
And if the new US President went a step further and decided to visit the island – which China claims as its own territory – he would find a sultry, welcoming place. For a start it has the perfect place for him to stay – the Grand Hotel in the capital Taipei is even more ostentatious than the President’s own Trump Tower.
Founded by Madame Chiang Kai-shek, the glamorous wife of the Nationalist leader who fled China in 1949, the hotel boasts an ornate golden archway, a lobby three storeys high, a fountain with a golden dragon spouting water, musicians playing Chinese music, and a staircase designed for Hollywood stars to sweep down.
Trump would enjoy the displays of photographs of fellow leaders who have stayed there, from Eisenhower and the Shah of Iran to Thatcher, Nixon and Mandela.
From his balcony he could admire the bamboo-shaped 101-storey-high Taipei 101, once the world’s tallest building. In Taipei he could also feast his eyes on the treasures of the Palace Museum, the greatest collection of Chinese art in the world, with priceless jade carvings and 5,000-year-old bronzes liberated from the Forbidden City in Beijing.
If Trump and First Lady Melania fancy some pampering, they could take the presidential limousine to the hot springs of Xinbeitou (30 minutes by subway from Taipei) to enjoy a soak in steaming sulphurfilled waters.
Trump will feel at home at beautiful Sun Moon Lake, where Chiang Kai-shek entertained foreign leaders while plotting his takeover of mainland China in the 1920s.
From here he could take the presidential limo to Taroko Gorge to gaze up at the towering cliffs and green hills of the east coast, and find out why Portuguese sailors named Taiwan ‘Ilha Formosa’ – the Beautiful Isle.
But it might be more his style to glide on Taiwan’s smooth high-speed railway down to the southernmost tip where he can top up his tan on some of the best – and least crowded – beaches in the world.
He could then end his visit at the temples swarming with dragons and bearded gods in Tainan, Taiwan’s southern city. And while at the venerable Confucian temple there, he might ponder the words that embody the Confucian philosophy: ‘With great power comes great responsibility.’