National Palace Museum

This is the National Palace Museum located in the Shilin District in Taipei. Carrying over 700,000 treasures kept in the Imperial Palace in Beijing, China. These treasures were owned by generations of Emperors who rules the Forbidden City back then. There are thousands of years old of Chinese art here, from the Shang to the Qing Dynasties, not to mention, ritual bronzes, ceramics, jade, lacquerware, enamelware, carvings,embroidery, scrolls, calligraphy, and archival documents. All these were evacuated from the Forbidden City to Taiwan in 1948 amidst the chaos of the Chinese Civil War, in 20 000 crates!

This museum was founded in 1965; its design followed the Northern Chinese Palace. We wanted so much to see the world famous Jade Cabbage statue and "Tung Poh Roe" (layered pork cooked in soy sauce) statue; unfortunately, both of them had traveled to another exhibition! Nevertheless, by the time we finally made it to the 3rd floor, I did not want to see another piece of jade for the next 3 months!!! The collection was just amazingly immense.

We were lucky that entrance was free on New Year's Day. However after covering 3 floors, I felt like I had walked a marathon.

Ohhh...the OCD in me played up! At first I said to Hubs, okay let's go through room by room, in order. Then we went to the right wing and found that it was arranged in either even numbers or odd numbers. I was furious. How could one go from Room 101 to 103 and so on? It did not make sense! Arrrgggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!

 Old books

I learnt a new term. Kerchief-box editions. It means they are palm-sized books or miniature books fit into a box for ease of carrying them around or for storage. Just imagine how small the Chinese calligraphy were.

 Chinese paintings in books

 There were flashcards to teach young children to read.

 Do you see BORNEO???

 The longest scroll ever

 Museum cafe

 Tried Bubble Latte

 Chicken spaghetti

 Rice cakes pork burger

 THIS, my dear friends, is a CHEAT SHEET for an examination!!!

 A study

I loved going through all these characters and noticed how each of them were first written. Such a difference, then and now.

 That's my name. "Yoke"

PIXIU. A Chinese mythical hybrid creature and a powerful protector of the practitioners of Feng Shui. Pixiu is an earth and sea variation. It has a huge appetite for only gold, silver and jewels; therefore, it is an auspicious creature for wealth. It has a powerful head of a dragon and a body of a lion.

Myth: Pixiu once defecated on the floor of the Heavens. So the Jade Emperor spanked it so hard that its rectum was permanently sealed. Therefore, its diet was restricted to only gold, silver and jewels, but could not expel them. That's why it is a symbol of wealth until today.

 Royal stamps

An old time steamer

Water vessel

Wine vessel

Steamer

Wine vessel

Wine vessel

Jade divider

Lapis Lazuli

Jade

Agarwood bracelets

Agarwood necklace

Agarwood necklace

Paintings of birds

We had a great morning at the Palace Museum. Really, the treasures were beautiful and reading the history was just astonishing. It was a rainy day that day so whenever the rain stopped, we would run out to take a picture in the open and then run back in. Took us a few runs to get some decent outdoor pictures with the museum!  

Dihua Street

Welcome to Dihua Street. I called it the Chinese New Year street. It seemed that this 19th century neighborhood in Taipei gets all happy and bright when Chinese New Year is around the corner. Shops would be selling all goodies from mushrooms to shark meat. I believe as the Lunar New Year Festival comes nearer, this street would be over-crowded with locals and tourists. I am sure there would be performances as well.

Ate the famous stinky tofu here. I must say, we could smell its stink from a mile away. It was just horrendous. How could anything be sooooooooooooooo smelly yet taste sooooooooooooo good? Such bewilderment.

This stall sold Pig's Blood. Yupp, PORKY'S BLOOD! There was a loooooooooooooooong queue to purchase it. Can't explain this either!

 We dropped by Yong Le Market. Nothing much. Just a simple fruit market.

 This is another long line queueing up to buy porridge.

 Fried ice-cream, I think!

 Tea stall

 Dragon fruit snack

 Lollies

 Quail eggs on a stick

 Wooden what-nots

 A little French place we stopped by for coffee and dessert

 Coffee

 Pound cake

 Lemon tart

Xia Hai City God Temple along Dihua Street is most famous for matchmaking and love. It was amusing to see people, young and old, with joss sticks in their hands, praying all over the place outside the temple.

Dihua street is just full of life. From dry food shops to Chinese medicine shops to restaurants and food stalls by the road, it is quite an exciting place to explore.