West Lake Historical Residence Turned into McCafé

The “McCafe” opened last week in Hangzhou city near the famed West Lake tourist spot in the former home of late Taiwanese President Chiang Ching-kuo, the China Daily newspaper reported. The home was listed as a cultural heritage site, but was closed to visitors for many years before officials chose to convert the property into a McDonald’s.

As well as the sumptuous surroundings of West Lake, the villa itself, located in Hangzhou, has a handsome courtyard which now forms part of the restaurant. Chiang Kai-shek fled the mainland in 1949 after the Kuomintang was defeated by the communists, retreating to Taiwan where his son, Chiang Ching-kuo, was president from 1978 to 1988. “As it’s historical heritage, it should not be commercialised!”

“There is no preservation apart from the main structure of the building and there’s little point in turning it into a museum”, they said.

Now, Chiang’s grandson – businessman Demos Chiang – has had his say on the matter, complaining about the restaurant’s opening on on microblogging site, Weibo.

Conservationists had called a social history website, for the apartment, to become changed into a memorial.

‘I don’t understand – opening a McDonald’s in the villa.

Zhejiang University academic Zhou Fuduo: “We said that the villa’s socio-cultural value outstrips its commercial value, but in the end our proposal was ignored”.

But officials pointed out that the local government needed money to recoup the cost of maintaining the building throughout the years.