National Palace Museum

Being listed as one of the top ten most popular museums in the world, National Palace Museum (國立故宮博物院) is undoubtedly a must-see attraction in Taiwan. Situated in a lush-hillside suburb of Taipei City, this palace-like building with a traditional Chinese-courtyard atmosphere is so easily identified. You are impossible to miss it.

The origin of the museum comes from a rather attractive history. The National Palace Museum was established as the Palace Museum in Beijing’s Forbidden City in 1925, where was the house of most precious and historical Chinese arts. However, due to the Second Sino-Japanese War and Chinese Civil War, Generalissimo Chiang Kai-Shek of Nationalist Government decided to evacuated some of the most prized arts to Taiwan and prevented them from stolen and damage during the war. Eventually, the Taipei National Palace Museum was established in 1965 and became the new home of the largest amount of Chinese priceless treasures in the world. Thus, It is also named as Yat-Sen Museum because 1965 is also the 100th anniversary of the birth of Sun Yat-Sen (1866~1925), the founder of Republic of China.

Known as a treasure house of Chinese culture, National Palace museum covers diverse and delicate artifacts, including scroll paintings, calligraphy, jade, bronze castings, porcelain and ancient books. Its collection consists of more than 650,000 pieces that spans many dynasties of China. Among all the precious treasures, there are some signatures in the museum that you should not miss, such as Jade Cabbage, Meat-Shaped Stone, Bell of Zhou…and so on. From which you are going to realize how ancient Chinese reflected their rich culture, philosophy and customs through the art works.

Same as every famous museum in the world, Taipei National Palace Museum provides free guiding tours in Mandarin and English everyday. Self-guiding audio devices with multiple language versions are also available, including Mandarin, English, Japanese and Korean. Need more energy to know more about Chinese culture? Restaurants and tea houses like Sanxitang (三希堂) or Xianjufu (閒居賦) are right inside the museum waiting for you. Through these typical Chinese cuisines, I believe you will have a deeper recognition of the profound Chinese culture.