Window on China Taiwan
Window on China, Taiwan: History
Window on China was opened to the public in the 1980s. The founder of the park and its chairman, C.H. Chu was a visionary who realized the need for resurgence in tourism in Taiwan. This yearning took him to different places around the world; fascinated as he was by what he saw, Chu settled on Madurodam in Netherlands, which presents a miniature version of the Netherlanders’ daily activities.
Extreme care had to be taken to ensure the accuracy of the models. Chu and his men ran from pillar to post to obtain the blue print of the models. The almost obsessed fixation on accuracy predicated that the trees and the shrubs around the monuments were faithfully depicted too.
Window on China, Taiwan: Attractions
When first opened, Window on China had two distinct parts- Mini Taiwan and Mini China. The Mini Taiwan section was purported to represent the entire span of Taiwan’s history- from the colonial days to the present. The replicas included those of Fort San Domingo, Lung Shan Temple, the Chiang Kai-shek and Sun Yat-sen memorial halls, and Chiang Kai-shek International Airport.
Mini China had replicas of the Great Walls, some parts of the Forbidden City, the Temple of Heaven and the Lungmen Caves.
The stupendous success that greeted the park goaded those behind it to expand further. Window on China soon included famous landmarks around the world. A separate area named Mini Kingdom was allotted for the project and it contained over 50 miniature structures across Asia, Europe, Africa and America.
Apart from opening the window to China’s landscape, Window on China also provides wonderful view of its culture. There are traditional folk dances, Chinese music performance, aboriginal dance and other Chinese folk arts that are shown in the park.