National Palace Museum

On Saturday we continued our museum tour of Taiwan (we're waiting for it to cool off a bit before we can do outdoorsy stuff) with a visit to the National Palace Museum. The National Palace Museum is one of the most important and most visited museums in the world. All of its' artifacts are from ancient China, and there are so many pieces that less than 10% of the collection can be seen at one time. All of these treasures were moved to Taiwan to keep them safe during a civil war in China in the 40's but since they were never returned and Taiwan isn't really part of China (depending on who you ask), a lot of people consider all of these Chinese treasures to be stolen. With admission priced at only $4.50 there's a lot of stolen booty to be seen for one low price.

All of the exhibits are labeled in both English and Chinese, but not unlike the National Taiwan Museum it was really just a lot of old plates and scrolls and we found it pretty tedious after a while. Although the museum was massive and there were some interesting exhibits, it felt like we were looking at the same types of things room after room. A lot of the pieces were really old- it really made us realize what a long history Asia has compared to our own- because there were objects dated 6500 B.C.E! There were no photos allowed which has never stopped me before, so I did manage to grab some shots of my favorite exhibits. Please enjoy this photo tour:


An ancient pillow... made of concrete?! Considering how hard the beds are here, I suppose this makes sense.


A meat-shaped rock. This was seriously listed as one of the 5 most important things to see. According to the label it looks "just like boiled pork". I suppose so...


"Earthquake-proof" cups. Hopefully when we eventually experience our first earthquake I'll be drinking out of a vase to avoid any spills.


I really liked these guys. They were massive.


Undoubtedly, the highlight of our visit was the jade cabbage! That's right, the most famous and beautiful object in the museum was a jade CABBAGE. It was the only exhibit that required waiting in a line to visit (though we timed it right and didn't have to wait).


It was truly a wonderful cabbage, with bright vibrant colors. Although I longed for a photo shoot with this amazing piece of art, security was too tight around this valuable object to whip out my camera (the above image is provided to you by Google). Upon leaving the jade cabbage room, you have the opportunity to buy miniature jade cabbages, cabbage pens, cabbage cell phone charms, cabbage coasters, cabbage everything. Mel and I totally bought a miniature cabbage ornament which brightens my day just by looking at it in our living room.


The grounds of the museum were really impressive.


We caught a bus back to the MRT station and grabbed some lunch at our favorite toilet-themed restaurant. I'll never get tired of sitting on a toilet while eating out of a toilet.


Then we headed home to get some snacks at the night market and play Wii. When we got off the bus in Sinjhuang we could see that some sort of performance was going on at the park. This is the same park that had the chanting monks, trannies and pig butchering the night before. It was a bit more tame Saturday, as we were treated to a Chinese puppet show. It was like turning on Mr. Rogers in the wrong language. What a great day.