By Zhen-Kang —

Inside the dictator’s nuclear bunker

Now repurposed as an underground aquarium at Kaohsiung’s Chengcing Lake…

A clownfish in an aquarium tank.
One of the friendlier things inside. Photo: Zhen-Kang.

After my judgmental jaunt through Chiang Kai-Shek’s winter residence, I rode my scooter 400 meters west to another of his mid-century projects: a lakeside nuclear bunker.

It was built to protect the dictator if war broke out while he was on vacation.

It comprises a 200-meter-long tunnel that snakes through a hill, connecting all the underground facilities an at-war dictator needs:

  • Assembly room
  • Command office
  • Military goods store
  • Telecommunications room
  • Bathrooms
  • Bedrooms
  • Emergency exit

But after Chiang died in 1975, the bunker was closed. (The next dictator vacationed elsewhere.)

Two decades later, a private business re-opened the bunker as a public aquarium called Ocean Fantasy Museum (澄清湖海洋奇珍園). After 30 years in operation, it’ll soon be closing for a desperately-needed renovation. So I came along to see it while I can.

This was my first time exploring a nuclear bunker, and my first time seeing an aquarium in Taiwan…

Concrete and steel entrance to a nuclear bunker, set into a hill and now brightly painted with aquatic life murals.
The entrance really did look like a converted nuclear bunker. As a Kaohsiung resident, my discounted ticket cost NT$120 (NZ$6).
A blue-painted heavy open door of a nuclear bunker.
The bunker’s nuclear blast door weighs 5 metric tons. To protect from radiation, it comprises a steel outer shell and inner lining of lead.
An empty space with square concrete walls painted with faded sea creature murals.
The tunnel zig-zags through the mountain to dissipate any blast pressure. A consequence of this is that the aquarium’s state of disrepair is immediately obvious upon entry: the wall on the right side of this photo is the first thing you see.
A long narrow tunnel with arched roof. Walls are painted with sea life murals, and a series of fish tanks stretch down the right-hand side.
The tunnels are three meters wide, with more than half their width taken up with fish tanks.
A sign that says “Peculiar Sea-animals Areas” (a probable typo).
Ironically—given I chose to visit an aquarium—I’m scared of fish. So I took more photos of the bunker facilities than the Peculiar Sea-animals Ares.
Apple Watch screenshot showing a current heart rate of 110 beats per minute.
I noticed my heart rate rising as I passed some of the larger fish. I really don’t know why I visit aquariums.
Three people standing in an underground concrete-lined room with the sign “Touch and Feel Room” above the doorway.
Unsurprisingly, I avoided touching and feeling in the Touch and Feel Room.
A small square hole in a thick concrete wall in an underground bunker.
Back in the main tunnel, I saw this Counteractive Shooting Hole…
Algae in a fish tank, viewed through a small square hole in a thick concrete wall of an underground bunker.
…Which nowadays affords a side view of a fish tank.
A square concrete room, decorated with a mermaid mural and a sign that says “Story Of The Command Center”. An illuminated light box at the far end of the room includes some text that’s too far away to read.
Further along, a one room had an info panel (next to the mermaid), which outlined the Story Of The Command Center.
An underground room, around four meters wide with an arched ceiling, and display cases along each wall. The cases contain coral.
The coral room was a bit more spacious.
A 130 centimeter tall piece of black coral, with a tree-like structure, in a glass display case.
A side room contained nothing but this black coral. A group of people entered immediately behind me and gasped when they saw it. I translated the information panel and learned why: it’s one of the largest specimens of black coral in the world. And at 130 cm high, and having grown only about an inch every 100 years, it could be thousands of years old.
A dark room with two illuminated display cases, each containing a very large shell (each is perhaps 70 or 80 centimeters wide and perhaps 50 or 60 centimeters tall).
The giant clam room included a “killer shell” (on right). An English-language information panel said a victim “will stop into its body so his feet will be grasped one cannot be freed. Gradually, this man will suffer from lack of oxygen and finally suffocates to death.” (Wikipedia says this is a myth.)
A clownfish in an aquarium tank.
There are around 300 living creatures in the aquarium. This clownfish was about the only one I was okay with.
In a concrete room with an arched ceiling, a small steel door marked “Escape Exit”.
I found the dictator’s emergency exit, but it was closed so I backtracked through the bunker…
A long concrete corridor in a bunker, with illuminated display cabinets down the left wall. A sign on the right wall says “Magnificent Stones”.
…Past the Magnificent Stones…
A series of display cabinets with very large shells inside. At the far end of the corridor, an open steel door leads to a dark room.
…And the magnificent shells…
A fish tank with clear water and assorted small colorful fish swimming inside.
…Past these innocuous-looking fish…
A fish tank with a scary-looking very large fish inside.
…And very quickly past this terrifying thing on the left…
Concrete and steel entrance to a nuclear bunker, set into a hill and now brightly painted with aquatic life murals.
…And out of the bunker. My heart rate returned to normal and I got back on my scooter.
An immaculate tall seven-story Chinese pagoda surrounded by tall trees.
My next stop was the Chung-Hsing Pagoda (中興塔), just uphill from the lake. It’s of Indian Buddhist origin and 53 meters tall. Next to the steps, an anachronistic message carved in stone (in English) read “It causes righteous indignation to think that our rich homeland is now under the yoke of the Chinese communists.”
The ground floor of a Chinese Pagoda. It is immaculately clean, and features a double helix-style staircase leading to the upper floors.
The double helix staircase had 238 steps to the top.
An expansive view over a forest and a lake, with mid-rise apartment buildings in the distance.
From the top floor, there was a great view back over Chengcing Lake…
The Kaohsiung Grand Hotel visible across Chengcing Lake, with mid- and high-rise apartment buildings in the distance.
…The Kaohsiung Grand Hotel…
An expansive view across a forest and golf course in the foreground, with the skyscrapers of Kaohsiung visible in the distance.
…And towards the city center. (I can see my apartment building from here.)
An expansive green park that looks like a golf course, including a much-larger-than-life sculpture of a golf ball, and a pink starburst-style sculpture.
The park in the foreground is a former golf course which was converted to a public park last year. I’m used to Taiwanese puns failing miserably when translated to English, but in this case the English name is quite clever: Kaohsiung Green Park. It includes some fun sculptures, like the white golf ball and pink starburst.
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As I was leaving Chengcing Lake, I passed another cool installation: these wavy tentacles on the International Art Center.

Scooters parked outside the front of the Kaohsiung Grand Hotel.
I stopped for a closer look at the Kaohsiung Grand Hotel (高雄澄清湖圓山大飯店). It’s another of the dictator’s projects, built to house visiting dignitaries. At the gate, I asked the guard if I could come in to take photos. He said sure, as long as I parked in the designated scooter area.
The hotel opened in 1971. Its more famous sister, the Taipei Grand Hotel, famously featured in Ang Lee’s 1994 film Eat Drink Man Woman.
Close-up of a stone lion statue at the front of the Kaohsiung Grand Hotel.
I’d like to stay here sometime. Although… current prices range from NT$3,500 (NZ$175) to NT$10,000 (NZ$500) a night, so it’s hard to justify when I live 15 minutes away. At least the scooter parking was free.
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Inside the dictator’s bedroom