National Palace Museum

I spent my last day in Taiwan at one of Asia’s most well known museums–the National Palace Museum. The National Palace has a backstory tied into the history of China and Taiwan. After the Nationalists overthrew China’s ancient imperial system, they set up the Forbidden City as a museum to exhibit millennia’s worth of Chinese treasures. (Seems fair, right?) When the Japanese were invading China from the north in the ’30s, kicking off the Second Sino-Japanese and ultimately World War II, the Nationalists, led by Chiang Kai-shek, packed up the treasures for safekeeping and shipped them south.

After World War II, China went straight back into the civil war that the invading Japanese had interrupted. As peace hadn’t come to China, Chiang kept the treasures boxed up. As things got worse for the KMT, Chiang started shipping the treasures to Taiwan. The Communists managed to block most of the transfer. However, many of the most valuable pieces made the transit to Taiwan. Today, these treasures make up the collection of the National Palace Museum.

Traditional ceremonial column outside the National Palace Museum. This type of column traditionally has a crosspiece representing clouds.

Bronzes and More

Ritual bell, 9th century BC, Zhou Dynasty.

Gold-filigree phoenix finial, 18th-19th century, Qing Dynasty.

Coral prayer beads with sheepskin note, likely Tibetan, 18th century, Qing Dynasty.

Cauldron, 13th-11th century BC, Shang Dynasty.

Water vessel with coiling dragon pattern, 13th-11th century BC, Shang Dynasty.

Wine vessel, 9th century BC, Zhou Dynasty.

Wine vessel, 11th-10th century BC, Zhou Dynasty.

Cauldron amalgam-gilt with 3 animals on the lid, 5th-4th century BC, Warring States period.

A Gathering of (Not Quite Edible) Treasures

The National Palace Museums 2 most famous pieces are tiny, somewhat odd, and not all that old, relatively speaking.

The jadeite cabbage, 19th century, Qing Dynasty.

The artist who carved this depiction of bok choy took advantage of the natural coloring and imperfections in the jadeite, a type of jade. If you look closely you can see the locust and katydid that were carved into the green part. The cabbage is a little over 7 inches tall.

The meat-shaped stone, 19th century (?), Qing Dynasty.

Behold Dongpo pork, a traditional presentation of pork belly, carved into banded jasper. The artist dyed the top to look like skin. But the layering of the piece is a natural feature of banded jasper.

Jades

*Bixie*, a mythical beast, in jade, 1st-3rd century, Han Dynasty.

Jade hairpin tops with flower-and-bird pattern, 7th-10th century, Tang Dynasty.

Jade ornament with “wild duck couple in lotus pond” motif, 13th-17th century, Yuan and Ming Dynasties.

Green jade, screen, c. 1940. This screen is inlaid with nephrite, another type of jade.

Jadeite vase carved with flowers and bird, c. 1940.

Ceramics

Painted potteries of a female and a male figure, 3rd century BC -1st century AD, Han Dynasty.

Bowl with ball-chasing pair dragons painted in gold on a red glaze ground, 15th century, Ming Dynasty.

Ming vase, anyone?

Vase with peony decoration in underglaze blue, 15th century, Ming Dynasty.

Incense burner with pierced holes and flower decoration in underglaze blue, 15th century, Ming Dynasty.

Flask with intertwined flowers decoration in underglaze blue, 15th century, Ming Dynasty.

Can you blame the Europeans for being insanely vexed by Chinese porcelain manufacture?

Vase with hundred butterflies in overglaze polychrome enamels, 19th-20th century, Qing Dynasty.

Vase with dish-shaped mouth and hundred long life characters in underglaze blue, 17th-18th century, Qing Dynasty.

Small ewer with green dragons decoration and incised waves decoration, 15th century, Ming Dynasty.

Yixing clay square teapot with four-seasons flowers decoration in painted enamels, 17th-18th century, Qing Dynasty.

Copper teapot with paired butterflies and flowers decoration in painted enamels, 18th century, Qing Dynasty.

Buddhist Sculptures

Gilt bronze figure of Virudhaka Lokapala, guardian of the south, 15th century, Ming Dynasty.

Buddhist triad, gilt bronze, 14th-17th century, Ming Dynasty.

Curios

Precious red coral, formed for about 500 years.

Watch with elephant-shaped pedestal, 19th century, Qing Dynasty.

Planter with a coral carving of Kui Xing, a Chinese deity, 17th-20th century, Qing Dynasty.

Furniture

Wrapping up Taiwan

A guardian lion outside the National Palace Museum.

I hope you agree that the National Palace Museum contains some really stunning works. No wonder the Chinese wanted to protect them from the calamity of war. One thing I haven’t said yet is that I didn’t overly enjoy my time at the National Palace Museum. This is because the museum was packed with group tours, assumedly brought in by the busload. Some of them were American, but most were Chinese. The groups really overtook space in the museum. I did my best to keep ahead of them. But most of the time, it wasn’t feasible.

I had already checked out of my hostel that morning. I had stored my bags in the coat check at the museum. After my tour, I took the subway out to the airport and then flew off to Seoul, the primary destination of my trip. It seems that my time in Taiwan (and my blogging about it) has gone by quickly. But even though I had 6 days of sightseeing in both Taiwan and Korea, I had only 5 nights in Taiwan, compared with 7 nights in Korea. So my stay in Taiwan was relatively quick. (Taipei did feel smaller than I was expecting for a major Asian city. It definitely felt smaller to me after I got acquainted with massive Seoul.)

The flight landed in Seoul a little late that night. After arriving at the airport, I took the express train into the city. On the train, an older man insisted I take his seat. I received similar hospitality from Koreans throughout my stay. By the time we got to Seoul Station, I was afraid that it was too late to take the subway to my guesthouse. (I saw a map at the station that made the Seoul subway system seem unusually complex. It turns out that it was one of the world’s largest subway system.) So I decided I’d better take a taxi, something I usually try to avoid on my trips.

I asked a man in the station who spoke English where I could get a taxi. He told me which hallway to take to a set of stairs that would bring me to where I could get a taxi. I passed by a lot of homeless men sleeping in the halls of the station. I definitely hadn’t seen that in Taipei. I found the stairs I needed to take. I was surprised when I got to the top, I didn’t find a taxi stand. I was just on a street in the middle of Seoul!

I did manage to catch the 2nd taxi that came up the street. Just to make it more of an adventure, the driver didn’t speak a work of English. But I showed him my printout of the guesthouse’s handy map, with Korean and English writing. He knew exactly where to go.

Of course he couldn’t actually drive me to the guesthouse. The guesthouse was located in an area of narrow alleys. Naturally I had memorized how to get to the guesthouse from the main street. Fortunately, the driver pulled over in exact spot that I would need to walk from. I could tell that the driver was trying to indicate to me that this was as far as he could take me. I did my best to reassure him that I could take it from there.

I was a little nervous. It was well past midnight, probably past 1 a.m. I was concerned I’d be walking down my dark, deserted alleyways with my bags. I was also very worried that I wouldn’t be able to get into the guesthouse after arriving at such a late hour. My worry was all for naught! The 1st alley I had to walk down was lined with restaurants that were still packed with (noticeably young) diners. The energy was palpable. The 2nd alley was in fact dark and deserted, but when I got to the guesthouse, the front gate was wide open.

The guesthouse was in a traditional 200-year-old courtyard house. Just gorgeous. A very young woman took care of me. She served me tea, and we hung out and talked. I mentioned that her English was remarkable. She told me she had spent time in the States. It wasn’t until much later in the conversation that she told me she was in fact American. Well no wonder her English was so good!

After close to a week on the road, I had some laundry to do. My Korean-American friend told me that any day, I just had to leave my laundry in the machine and leave behind the equivalent of about $10, and they would take care of my laundry. After an uncertain arrival in Seoul, everything about my trip to Korea was coming up total win. It was going to be a good 7 nights.

[Factual information is primarily gathered from Wikipedia, so you know it must be true.]