National Palace Museum 国立故宫博物院

Sweet morning rise and shine! Morning in Taipei was super refreshing. Maybe that's because we're in vacation mood but the air is clean, and by 7am the sun is high up and people are getting busy. So did we and after breakfast, we headed to the first stop for the day: National Palace Museum.

The real Chinese spirit begins. The architectural style of the museum was Chinese palace and it was built to house the treasures of the ancient dynasties of China. We're not going to elaborate on how the treasures got here because you can read that from the link attached. But what we're going to share with you is the tour experience.

The museum is a very popular attraction in Taiwan and it expects millions of visitors especially during peak periods thus it is designed in a way very different from museums you see in Singapore. They have a huge foyer at the entrance of the museum where many many groups of tours wait for their guides to get them ready. The foyer has a very grand look with a statue of the Father. The Father we mention here does not belong to the religion but the Father of the country, or the founder, first president Mr Sun Yat-Sen. Similar to how we respect our country by singing the national anthem every morning while we were students, the Taiwanese expresses their love and respect for their founder generously. A Chinese idiom says that we should 饮水思源 which means we should remember where our roots begin. Stepping in Taiwan gave us a magnifying glance to how people can exhibit patriotism. The example we saw in the foyer was just a formal expression.

Unfortunately, for the exhibits that we saw inside the museum, we're unable to take pictures of them. But it was pretty inspiring art as we saw how the ancient artists in the past utilizes the luxury of time to create masterpieces, each carry a story of their own. When we describe a piece as crafty, not only does it refer to the skills and aesthetics is displays, but also the little scheming mind of the craftsmen as during their time, most of the pieces were done to please the emperor and in order to impress the emperor who has seen many extraordinary objects in his life, they had to come out with the "extraterrestrial".

Some must see pieces with mind-blowing stories are:
Jadeite Cabbage with Insects
Handled Ivory Openwork Container
Carved Olive-stone Boat
Link: http://www.npm.gov.tw/en/collection/selections_01.htm


Each display section is carefully designed to enhance the exhibits like for example, strategic lightings were made for the jade and ivory artifacts to showcase their translucent traits. And for the paintings that were horizontally-challenged, it was showcased with the support of digital screens to magnify and animate what's 2D and motionless. This made the whole journey come to life and demolishes the traditional thinking that museum exhibits could be lifeless and boring. It is no wonder why Taiwanese have a fondness of exploring the arts and cultures about almost everything!

Taiwan also has a very special culture when it comes to touring. More prominent for locals than for foreigners, this culture requires one to collect stamps as proof of having visited a place/event so to keep as souvenir or collection hobby. Some Taiwanese have this habit of bringing a personal notebook with them everywhere they go so that whenever they come to a stamping opportunity, they can never miss it. (Picture: Our very first stamp in Taiwan on a fresh white page >.<)


The following is a video taken at an open area within the site. The "100" you see mid-way through the video was actually a installation to celebrate the 100th year of centennial of the Republic of China. The place we were standing on was a common area for visitors to take pictures of the exterior of the museum along with the bonus of the superb background mountains.





Link to the National Palace Museum: http://www.npm.gov.tw/en/home.htm