We docked in Keelung, Taiwan; which is the northern port access to Taipei. You may remember my 2019 visit to Taipei, when we also docked in Keelung. Back then I took a day-long tour in Taipei, visiting many sites. Back in 2019 the Destination Lecturer said great things about the National Palace Museum. Just the other day my current Destination Lecturer echoed that opinion. So, I did something new.
For the first time I signed up for a “Explore on your own” tour, which is just a bus to Taipei. In many ports the ship offers a shuttle bus to a central location in town that runs every hour or so. However, Taipei is too far from Keelung to make that work. This “tour” takes us to Taipei in the morning and drives us back in the afternoon. God help you if you miss the ‘back to the ship’ bus.
But first, it seems my good beagle pal from 2019 is still helping to ensure we don’t bring undeclared food stuff onto Taiwan. I think it’s the same picture of the dog…
An hour bus ride later and we are dropped us off at the Taipei 101 building. Which is impressive. It was the tallest building in the world until passed by the Burj Khalifa in 2009.
From here, I needed to decide how to get to the Museum, which is more than six miles away. There is a city-wide hop-on/hop-off bus, but it would take almost an hour to get there following their ‘see-the-city’ route. The subway would get me closer, but still leaves a long walk. Not all taxis take credit cards. However, Uber works in Taiwan – the same Uber app I use in the US. It’s been long enough that I needed to update my payment information, but the joy of Uber in this situation is that I don’t need to figure out how to communicate with the non-English-speaking the cab driver where I want to go (I enter that in the app) and I don’t need to worry about payment (also in the app). I’m sure I could have paid less, but it worked with no issues.
The National Palace Museum is a bit odd. It contains items that the Nationalist forces… um… “liberated and protected” as they retreated from Beijing during the Chinese civil wars. Expanded many times over the years, it has enough land for a long walkway and stairs.
I started with the ceramics and pottery. The colors were amazing.
Seems there is some give-and-take with this. The museum said the Chinese learned to do layered painting from European traders.
The museum is especially proud of their Ru Ware. While comparatively simple, the light-blue glaze is kind of spooky.
Now to the bronzes. Here is an overly elaborate wine vessel. There is text that says something like “self-restraint avoids failure.”
This is different – a “standard measurements” device. As the following sign shows, each container is a whole fraction of the larger cup – one “hu” = ten “dou”, one dou = ten “sheng” and so on. An empire can only manage what it measures.
They had a “day in the life” section. Here is the furniture of the office of a high-level bureaucrat . Look at the level of wood carving.
But to top it off, and on top of the desk, is the jade. Oh, the fabulous jade. Below is an ornament with “Wild Ducks in a Lotus Pond.”
This is a Bi Disc, described as “forever Joyful.” How do they get the little “bumps” lined up so perfectly?
This is a vase with two fanciful fantasy fish.
This is the oddly-named (but beautiful) “Meat-Shaped Stone“. While technically jasper (not jade), it’s considered one of the great pieces of the museum. And it looks like a piece of cooked pork belly. The artist did an amazing job putting in the texture. Look at the wiki gallery for better pictures, the last picture being an actual piece of cooked pork.
Unfortunately for me, the piece I really wanted to see was not displayed today. The “Jadeite Cabbage” (a lot of food-based artwork here) was on display elsewhere. Here is a photo of the wall informational display. See the wiki for a better picture. Notice the small grasshoppers on the side. The color change from white to green is natural, so the artist found a way to carve the jade as the vegetable would look.
Finally, the room screen. I know there has been a lot of room screens shown during this cruise. However, this screen has carved jade IN EACH PANEL. This is among the most beautiful man-made things I have even seen.
I spent three hours in the Palace Museum and could have easily spent ten. Highly recommended. Now I need to visit the one in Beijing as well…
I Ubered back to Taipei 101, which, like many big buildings, has a multi-story shopping mall underneath. I tested the fast food in the food court (too much ketchup), then wandered thru the mall while waiting for the bus. The rest of the stores were way more posh that the other malls I’ve visited this cruise. When 20%+ of the stores sell wrist watches, you have goy to wonder. A like percentage were brands I have never heard of. On the other hand, what does Gucci and Tiffany actually sell, anyway?
We have two days of sailing until the Philippines. More lectures to learn from!