Taiwan Travel: National Palace Museum, Taipei
One afternoon in class on a summer day (yes, this is a very late post! Sorry!), my classmates and I were discussing about a conversation on our Mandarin book. And we saw a picture of National Palace Museum. The teacher asked us whether we have visited the place and from a total of 8 students, only 2 has raised their hands. Oops. I suppose the rest of us are attracted more to the local delicacies rather than local museum.
But. On a fine Saturday afternoon, I decided to go and I dragged one of them with me. She's willing to accompany me with a promise of dinner in Ximending after that. What the heck. Still thinking about food after XX days in Taipei. I can't blame her really. Hahaha. Taipei food is awesome! *thumbs up*
Okay, back to the topic....
This is the entrance gate of National Palace Museum. The place is grand.
But. On a fine Saturday afternoon, I decided to go and I dragged one of them with me. She's willing to accompany me with a promise of dinner in Ximending after that. What the heck. Still thinking about food after XX days in Taipei. I can't blame her really. Hahaha. Taipei food is awesome! *thumbs up*
Okay, back to the topic....
This is the entrance gate of National Palace Museum. The place is grand.
The museum itself is still faraway from here. And there are a lot of stairs in between. *gasp*
*gasp* *pant* *sweat* Okay I dunno how but we finally made it up here. The staircases are actually not that many but to us, lazybums, it is enough to kill us. XD
This is pretty high, no? But the view from the top is quite nice. And the wind too.
The museum complex is pretty huge. This is the view of the building complex on the right side of the main building.
Okay, time to get our tickets. The ticket to enter the museum costs 80NTD.
No photography is allowed inside the exhibition rooms. And the security guards are very strict about it. The moment they see your camera is in your hands, they will go to you and warn you straight away.
If you are curious about what collections are being exhibited inside, you can visit the National Palace Museum's official website: http://www.npm.gov.tw/en/Article.aspx?sNo=03000131
The most famous collection is the jade collection and Jade cabbage is the star of the collection. Which means, a lot of tourists will swarm and surround that collection to take a look. Haha.
At the basement level, you can visit the souvenir shop. It sells a lot of souvenirs of jade cabbage.
How to go to National Palace Museum:
You can take the MRT to Shilin Station. From Shilin Station, take bus R30 (Red 30), 255, 304, 815 to the plaza in front of the National Palace Museum.
If you want to secure your seats, you can opt to go from Ximen Station instead and take bus 815 from the bus stop outside Exit 3 of Ximen Station (near FE21 Building). I did this and to tell you the truth, there's no way you can sit in the bus if you take the bus from Shilin Station. The good news is, the distance from Shilin Station to National Palace Museum is not that far so you don't have to stand for a long time.