Former Residence of Zhang Xueliang (Taiwan)

Former Residence of Zhang Xueliang
張學良故居
General information
Type	Museum
Location	Wufeng, Hsinchu County, Taiwan
Opening	12 December 2008
Technical details
Floor area	150 m2

Zhang Xueliang

The Former Residence of Zhang Xueliang (Chinese: 張學良故居; pinyin: Zhāng Xuéliáng Gùjū) is a museum about Zhang Xueliang in Wufeng Township, Hsinchu County, Taiwan.

History

Zhang Xueliang is the person who declared the Chinese reunification in 1928 after the end of Northern Expedition by National Revolutionary Army led by Chiang Kai-shek to unite the Beiyang Government under the Republic of China. Unwilling to cooperate with the Communist Party of China to defend China against the Imperial Japanese Army during the Second Sino-Japanese War, on December 1936 Zhang took Chiang as hostage and demanded that Chiang stop the civil war with the Communist Party and to unite to fight against the Japanese in the event called the Xi'an Incident.

After the handover of Taiwan from Japan to the Republic of China in 1945, Chiang imprisoned Zhang due to the incident and sent him to Taiwan under house arrest in Wufeng Township, Hsinchu County from 1946 to 1957. Zhang left Taiwan in 1993 to visit his relatives in the United States. In 1995, Zhang and wife settled in Hawaii until his death on 14 October 2001 at the age of 100. In the Chinese way of counting, his age was 101.

The house where he was kept under house arrest was damaged due to a landslide in 1963. In July 2008, the building underwent renovation to restore it and was opened to public on 12 December 2008 during the 72nd anniversary of Xi'an Incident. The opening ceremony was attended by President Ma Ying-jeou.

Architecture

The house spans about 150 m² in area. It is decorated with Zhang's old furniture and more than 500 pictures donated by his two nieces. A bronze statue of him and his wife is displayed outside the front of the historical house.

See also

• Xi'an Incident
• List of tourist attractions in Taiwan