National Palace Museum in Taiwan is a well known museum in the world. It hosts a large collection of cultural national treasure from China. When the civil war in China ended, the Chinese government fled to Taiwan with thousands of cultural treasures shipped to Taiwan. Rumour has indicated that the mountain behind National Palace Museum is actually hollow inside and hides huge amount of treasures beneath the mountain. The collections shown on the display in the museum is only a small portion of the entire treasure.
National Palace Museum was a must visit place in Taiwan. We took the metro subway to Shilin station and then took the bus to National Palace Museum. There was security check point and the entry of the museum and people were not allowed to carry large backpacks.
There were three floors at the museum. We first went around the first floor and saw various sculptures and bronze buddha statues. There were also several famous paintings that were 2 stories tall. The carving on the multi-layer ivory ball was magnificent. Each layer had its own unique pattern and could be moved around freely. It was difficult for us to imagine how much effort the original owner put in to carve this whole thing.
The second floor had more pottery related items on the display. This included vase, miniature horses and other interesting figures. The pair of blue lion caught our eyes as the colour of the blue paint was very vibrant on the bronze body. We were not sure if it was repainted or it was the original paint. It was quite interesting however. There was a lot of collection on the potteries from the Tang dynasty. The miniature horses with three different colouring was a big representation of Tang dynasty. Then there was also a large collection of vases from Ming and Qing dynasties. These vases often had painting on it and painted dragons, flowers, and other images. Many of these were broke down during multiple war in China and only a handful survived.
The third floor was the most interesting one as it was displaying the most ancient items from China. It included ancient swords and cauldron from China's bronze age. The swords did not look sharp and looked quite fragile from today's standard, but it represented an advancement in craftmanship in ancient China. The cauldron was quite interesting. There were writings inside some of the cauldrons. Then there were sculptures of various creatures on the outside of the cauldrons. These creatures usually represent various mythical creatures in China.
The final display on the third floor was the world famous jade that shaped like a cabbage. It was one of the most valuable items in the entire National Palace Museum. It was not always on display and usually rotated with other items. We were lucky enough to be able to see it!
The entire visit to National Palace Museum took about 2 hours for us. We had a great time here. The first floor was not as interesting, but the second and third floor really showed us the progression of Chinese culture in the ancient times. It is definitely worth the visit for visiting Taiwan.
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