February 14, 2012
If you're new to shopping for Chinese_New_Year, be sure to go to Dihua_Street #迪化街 at least a good 2 weeks early... http://ping.fm/QuI8h
If you are new to shopping for Chinese_New_Year, be sure to go to Dihua_Street #迪化街 at least a good 2 weeks early.
http://ping.fm/IUBx2
http://ping.fm/IUBx2
If you're new to shopping for Chinese New Year, be sure to go to Dihua Street 迪化街 at least a good 2 weeks early. http://ping.fm/22XDg
January 21, 2012
National Palace Museum in Taipei, Taiwan
The National Palace Museum in Taipei, Taiwan, hosts nearly 700,000 of some of the finest Chinese art and cultural artefacts in the world. The museum began life in 1925 in the Forbidden City in Beijing hence the reason for having the word "Palace" in its name. During the civil war, around 600,000 precious objects belonging to the Chinese history and culture were shipped to Taiwan for preservation.
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| Main gate to National Palace Museum, Shih-Lin |
It was not until 1965 when the artefacts were moved to its current location, the National Palace Museum in Shih-Lin (where the famous Shih-Lin night market is), Taipei. Over the years, the museum continued to expand and increased utilisation of digital technology to exhibit its holdings. In 2015, a new branch of the museum is scheduled to open in Chiayi, Taiwan. It is hoped that this will make the museum more accessible to those living in the southern part of Taiwan and also allow the museum to expand the scope and vision of its collections.
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| National Palace Museum |
It is not possible to see everything it the museum in one go and so I strongly recommend spending the whole day there if you have the time. We only had half a day and wished we could have stayed longer. However we managed to see all of the special Exhibition on Rare Books and Documents. Also learnt about "unequal treaties" which was a sad part of Chinese history. Photography is not allowed so you will have to go yourself to experience the museum and its collections.
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| National Palace Museum |
We arrived at the museum after a morning's walk in Yang Ming Mountain Gardens so the first stop was of course to grab a bite in the museum's well-known "Taiwanese Food Court" (府城晶華). The restaurant is inside museum grounds but in an adjacent building. I must say it was a delicious meal and very authentic Taiwanese food. We ordered 7-8 small dishes to share between the 4 of us and what a variety we ordered. There were fried oysters, marinated pig's intestine, traditional Tan Zae soup noodle, TaiNan rice cake in bowl, traditional pan-ried Taiwanese Sausage, traditional miniature rice dumpling wrapped in leaf and MiaoKow steamed taro cake. Then you have the choice of hot or cold traditional homemade tofu pudding or almond curd to finish off.
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| Taiwanese Food Court |