Taipei day trip and National Palace Museum - 20 April

One of Renalda's kids took part in a Hess English speaking competition. All 200 odd Hess branches took part in the knockout rounds of the competition and Renalda's student made it to the finals in Taipei. We took the opportunity to go see more of the city. His show and tell performance only started at 2pm so we got the 6:30am train into Taipei and went to the National Palace Museum. 

Most of China's historical artifacts were taken to Taiwan after the CMT were forced out of China by PRC forces (I think). These are mostly housed at the Palace Museum and are on a rotation that apparently takes many years to complete. You can come every 2 months and see new things every time!

Me standing at the gate to a traditional garden

2 hours was not enough! You actually need the whole day, but looking and reading is hard work, especially when most things are in Chinese and there are millions of people around you. Next time I think we will take a guided tour. Unfortunately no pictures inside.

The National Palace Museum gate in the background

Renalda with the same gate in the background

The Palace Museum main building

One of the lions (?) guarding the museum

Another view of the main gate

We got a brief rundown of Chinese history. Then we saw some copies of western media written about Taiwan around the turn of the century, at that stage it was part of Japan. There were some beautiful sketches for an illustrated British newspaper on display. There were also some wonderful jade carvings and descriptions of how jade instruments and jewelry were/are made. The most beautiful piece was the famous Jadeite Cabbage with a grasshopper hiding in it's leaves, amazing!!

One of the administration buildings or outer buildings of the complex

The floor above the entrance level of the museum

Renalda with the museum complex in the background

Another exhibit was regarding bronze casting, but by that stage we were on our way out. It showed the history of casting with illustrations of the process that appear to be very similar today. There were a few bronze potjies that made my stomach rumble ;) So went to hunt for some lunch.

Taiwan style bunny chow and trotter soup, very yummy, but a bit pricey

We then went to one of the Universities close by, where the competition was taking place. We were very happy when Steve came second on the island in his competition! We can't claim any credit for Renalda yet, but it was good to show face and to be there with his parents while he was on stage. He won a sizable amount of money!
We then took the opportunity to do a little bit of shopping and then took the late train home, arriving in DaJia after 11pm! It was a good outing.