After the Kuomintang government retreated to Taiwan in 1949, Chiang Kai-shek faced a diplomatic problem: Taipei had no hotel fit for foreign heads of state. His wife, Soong Mei-ling, suggested building one on Yuanshan Mountain, atop the ruins of the Taiwan Grand Shrine -- a Shinto holy site from the Japanese colonial period. The location was deliberate. Replacing a Japanese shrine with a Chinese palace sent an unmistakable cultural message. Chiang chose architect Yang Cho-cheng, who designed a building in Chinese palace style with vermilion columns, upturned eaves, and enough dragon motifs to earn the hotel the nickname "The Dragon Palace." The hotel was established in 1952, but the landmark main building was not completed until Double Tenth Day -- Taiwan's national holiday -- in 1973. At 87 meters, it was the tallest building in Taiwan until 1981 and remains one of the tallest Chinese classical buildings in the world.

In 1968, Fortune magazine rated the Grand Hotel one of the world's top ten hotels, a designation that reflected its role as Taiwan's de facto state guesthouse. The guest list reads like a Cold War diplomatic roster: Dwight D. Eisenhower visited in June 1960 -- the only sitting American president to set foot on Taiwanese soil. Richard Nixon stayed during an Asian trip in 1965. Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, Nelson Mandela, and Margaret Thatcher all passed through its lobby. The hotel hosted the founding meeting of the Democratic Progressive Party in 1986, making it the birthplace of the opposition movement that would eventually win the presidency. Each of its eight guest floors represents a different Chinese dynasty, reflected in the murals and decor, and its 490 rooms include a presidential suite said to contain Chiang Kai-shek's original desk and Madame Chiang's dressing table.

Rumors had circulated since the hotel's opening that secret passages connected it to the nearby Shilin Official Residence and the Presidential Office Building -- escape routes for Chiang in case of emergency. The truth, revealed after the 1995 fire triggered a safety commission investigation, was less dramatic but still remarkable: two air-raid tunnels, each 180 meters long, led to nearby parks. The western tunnel included a slide for disabled evacuees as an alternative to the spiraling stairs. The exits were hidden behind concrete walls, which explained why the tunnels had escaped public detection for decades. Their combined capacity was estimated at 10,000 people. The fire itself was devastating -- breaking out on the roof during reconstruction, it overwhelmed firefighting equipment that could not reach the upper floors, destroying the roof and top stories. The hotel did not fully reopen until 1998.

The Grand Hotel's visual distinctiveness made it irresistible to filmmakers. Ang Lee featured it in his 1994 film Eat Drink Man Woman, and Edward Yang used it prominently in Yi Yi, his celebrated 2000 portrait of Taipei family life. The hotel appeared in the video game Alpha Protocol, in Ghost in the Shell: S.A.C. 2nd GIG, and as the finish line for the Israeli edition of The Amazing Race. These appearances in popular culture have kept the hotel in international consciousness long after its diplomatic heyday. The hotel used to issue room keys shaped like ancient Chinese spade money -- a coin form dating back over two millennia. It was a small touch, but characteristic: at the Grand Hotel, even the key in your pocket was designed to remind you that Chinese civilization was older and grander than whatever you had left behind at home.