If you are not in Taipei for shopping, chances are you're in for the sightseeing. The National Palace
Museum certainly has more than just sightseeing as it houses one of the largest exhibitions. Heck, they can't even display all of their artifacts at any one time because it is that many.
Which is why I'd suggest that you come over here in the afternoon to have a few leisurely hours of covering the entire museum ground with small breaks in between. It closes around 6.30pm and if you're unlucky to bump into busloads of tourists, you'll have to cajole or nudge your way to view the items.
This is the one paid attraction that I found to be quite worth it. Not only because it is freaking huge but it is rather educational. We didn't hang around till very late at night. This is at 6.47pm.
Obviously, history buffs would go gaga over here as it presents splices of ancient China life. Even for a non-Chinese speaker, you wouldn't miss out too much as most of the artifacts come with English description as well. There are also the audio companion but I'm not too sure how that works. There were few tour groups during our visit so we kinda joined in when their tour guides gave explanation on certain items.
Somehow, by some miracle, my Mandarin skill improved there and then.
However, it has now gone back into remission.
The good thing about this museum is that photo taking is allowed generally. There are some which don't e.g. paper manuscripts. The entire indoor ground is quite chilly so be sure to come with a jacket. Here are some of the more interesting artifacts.
Nail guards worn by the women in order to protect their finger nails which I don't quite get but then again, if you live in the palace and can afford to wear them, chances are you don't quite need to do much with your hands then which begs the question: how do they dig their nose and ears?
Do they remove them when they give the emperor hand jobs?
One thing that I came to realize about ancient Chinese people is how they had a lot of time in their hands to carve something so elaborate and detailed. My personal preference is for something clean, sleek and stylish (read: no design) but this museum made me appreciate the details in such art.
There are many manuscripts and drawing depicting some story or period of time. The Chinese art is very different from Western ones. The former is quite simple with a telling tale. This one I dub as
kena kacao dating
Guy on right: eh, bro, look there, got something
Guy on left: stupid fella, can't you see I'm with a chick now, stop ruining my style.
These are rather larger than life. In fact, taller than me. Buddhism runs in the Taiwanese daily life and maybe that's why they quite peaceful? I think
la.
You know those Chinese epic serial dramas? I used to think that they just designed some random book covers but it turns out that this is how it used to be. Impressive. If there is a translation of it in English, I would most certainly be interested to read it.
For all the obvious reasons.
The world's most expensive cabbage. This was created so meticulously that you can see the ripples around the edges.
Ancient China's version of Pandora. If you don't know what is
Pandora, please don't ask your wife or gf unless you are prepared to splash out exorbitant amount of money on giant beads.
I particularly liked the hair accessories exhibits because they are oh-so pretty 💖I honestly wouldn't mind using them at all.
Bringing class to
sniffing coke.
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