Update: Les Duffin sent the 2 color photographs below and provided an explanation of the buildings in the black and white photographs below.
"I just saw the two photos on your site taken from the New Taipei Hotel. I have no memory of that hotel, but two buildings in the photos are familiar. The round structure in the distant left of the first photo and right in the second was a basketball stadium, but I don’t recall its name. The other building is the Mandarin Hotel which was under construction at that time. It’s the large building in the left of the second photo. I believe both structures were along Tun Hua North Road; I think the stadium was near the intersection of Tun Hua and Nanking East Road and the hotel was near the intersection with Minchuan East Road, very close to the airport. So I would guess these photos were of the northeast section of the city, probably looking roughly east. The airport should be somewhere in the distance behind the hotel, but I can’t make it out."
These 2 photos were taken from "The New Taipei Hotel." The hotel does not show-up in a Google search. I have no idea where it was located, however, you can see a couple of large buildings which someone may identify. These photographs were taken in 1963.
"I just saw the two photos on your site taken from the New Taipei Hotel. I have no memory of that hotel, but two buildings in the photos are familiar. The round structure in the distant left of the first photo and right in the second was a basketball stadium, but I don’t recall its name. The other building is the Mandarin Hotel which was under construction at that time. It’s the large building in the left of the second photo. I believe both structures were along Tun Hua North Road; I think the stadium was near the intersection of Tun Hua and Nanking East Road and the hotel was near the intersection with Minchuan East Road, very close to the airport. So I would guess these photos were of the northeast section of the city, probably looking roughly east. The airport should be somewhere in the distance behind the hotel, but I can’t make it out."
These 2 photos were taken from "The New Taipei Hotel." The hotel does not show-up in a Google search. I have no idea where it was located, however, you can see a couple of large buildings which someone may identify. These photographs were taken in 1963. Some of these homes look really nice. I know a number of folks assigned to Taipei Air Station resided in the general area.
4 comments:
The New Taipei Hotel is located at Sung Chiang Road, Alley 69
His photo might recall your memory
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v358/pabloli/newtpehotel.jpg
The "China Arts and Sports Center" was burnt out, the gathering inside the building set firecrackers which in turn ignited the roof.
When the O'Neil Family arrived on Taiwan July 1967, we stayed in a hotel for about one month. I thought it was called either "Taipei Hotel" or "New Taipei Hotel". I cannot use the photobucket link kindly provided, but if it's the same image as posted recently in a facebook group as the New Taipei Hotel, it is not the same. Ours was about 15 stories high (not 9-10) with a restaurant on top (and rats a size I had never seen before - fearless rats!). Speaking of rats, 5 of 6 of us caused a lot of trouble, our lessons not yet learned.
The owner/operator of a restaurant that now exists close to where the New Taipei Hotel once existed, remembers the hotel growing up. It was located at Lane 69, Sungjiang Rd (as also noted earlier by the commenter above, "pabloli", who also provides a photo of the former hotel). It is not far from the current I-tong Park ("Yitong Park" on Google Earth). A high-end residence building now stands where the hotel once did. A couple of items of interest involving the hotel, according to United Daily News (UDN) archives, a major Chinese newspaper in Taiwan, (1) Miss Universe had lunch there after a city tour in 1964, and (2) A fire broke out in the hotel either late July 3 or early July 4, 1966. According to the investigation, it originated in Room 605 where an American soldier and a bar girl were staying. Twenty-some lives were lost including three American GI's on vacation from the Vietnam war. The hotel remained in operation until (at least) 1984 when it was demolished, its construction deemed to violate public safety codes. (Thanks to 江復正/Johnny Jiang who lives in Taipei for researching and providing this information on the hotel's history.)
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