Taipei in March: 4

MUSEUMS & MEMORIAL HALLS

NATIONAL PALACE MUSEUM

While many Taiwanese loved the economic spin off derived from the massive influx of tourists from mainland China, some are not that happy as they feel that many tourist spots where priceless items are displayed have now been turned into crowded and noisy "market places". The taxi driver who took us from the MRT station to the National Palace Museum in Shilin is one of those who shared such sentiment.

For us, being the first timers to Taipei, we had to visit this, which is reckoned as one of the "must see places" in Taipei. Indeed, the amount of visitors to the Museum was huge. However, the staff in the Museum told us that that was not the "worst" time of the year. At certain peak seasons, the Museum would be jam-packed and one could hardly move around to see the items they come to see.

In the collections of the National Palace Museum, two of the most famous items on display are the "Meat-shaped Stone" and the "Jadeite Cabbage" made during the Qing Dynasty. The meat-shaped piece of stone looks like a luscious, mouth-watering piece of "Tung Po meat". The truth is, the piece of "meat" is made of banded jasper, a naturally occurring stone that accumulates in layers over many many years. Unfortunately, no photograph taking was allowed in the Museum. Fortunately, its photo is available in the internet.

For the Jadeite Cabbage, we bought a miniature replica from the souvenir shop. The piece of jade stone used to be carved out as the cabbage was considered "sub-standard" because it is a mixture of white and green jade. Somehow, the craftsman did a wonderful job by creating this marvelous piece of wonder!

Photo of actual Jadeite Cabbage against miniature replica.

NATIONAL CHIANG KAI-SHEK MEMORIAL HALL

Unfortunately, the Memorial Hall was closed for renovation when we went there. There are three buildings within the vast compound. Two similar buildings of Ming/Qing architecture near the main entrance are the National Theatre and the National Concert Hall.

Main Entrance and the National Concert Hall

SUN YAT-SEN MEMORIAL HALL

Many tourists come to watch the change of guards at hourly interval. We did stay on to see the change of guards.

I was surprised to discover that USA had such high regards of Sun Yat-Sen. USA at one time printed stamp bearing portraits of Abraham Lincoln and Sun Yat-Sen side by side.