228 Peace Memorial Park

228 Peace Memorial Park is Taipei's most historically significant green space — a park in the civic centre of the city that memorialises the February 28 Incident of 1947, when the KMT government's suppression of an anti-government uprising led to the massacre of an estimated 18,000-28,000 Taiwanese civilians. The incident was a taboo subject during martial law (1949-1987), and the park's renaming (from Taipei New Park) and the construction of the 228 Memorial Museum within its grounds represent Taiwan's post-democratisation reckoning with its authoritarian past.

The museum, in a colonial-era building within the park, documents the incident through photographs, testimony, and the personal effects of victims — a presentation that is frank, emotional, and essential for understanding the political trauma that shaped modern Taiwanese identity. The park itself — with its mature trees, lotus pond, and the colonial-era gazebo — provides a contemplative setting for material that is anything but peaceful.