34 lines
4.7 KiB
HTML
34 lines
4.7 KiB
HTML
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---
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layout: post
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status: publish
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published: true
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title: Taiwan's Treasures
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date: '2009-05-18 00:00:22 -0400'
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date_gmt: '2009-05-18 04:00:22 -0400'
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categories:
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- Personal
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tags: []
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---
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<p>I had a free day this weekend while in Taipei, so I decided to do a little sight seeing.</p>
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<p>After consulting with a couple of the local Apple team, I was told to head to the National Palace Museum. The history of the museum itself is pretty interesting.</p>
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<p>Apparently, when the communist "insurgents" were rising up, Chiang Kai-Shek decided that it was his duty to protect all the ancient Chinese artifacts from them and shipped them all to southern China and then off to Taiwan as part of his retreat. So in the end a lot of the stuff that was originally in the Forbidden City and other historical sites in China ended up being put in a museum in Taiwan.</p>
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<p>I expected it to be an awful day to go to the museum as it was like 31C and pretty humid, but I went off anyways as a day sitting in the hotel room watching bad movies on HBO Asia sounded even worse.</p>
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<p>After glancing at the directions on the website for the museum, I hopped on the train and headed to the Shilin station. Unfortunately, the map at the train station of all the landmarks in the area left the National Palace Museum (the 15th most visited museum in the world according to The Economist) off the map. So I headed towards the hills because in the pictures it appeared that the museum was up in the trees rather than the city.</p>
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<p><a href="/assets/2014-01-taiwan-natl-museum-17.jpg"><img src="/assets/2014-01-taiwan-natl-museum-17_m.jpg" /></a></p>
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<p>After walking a few blocks, I really wasn't sure how far it was to get there and asked a group of a couple English speaking people where it was... after much debate they decided that it was 2 hours by car from where I was, and that I was "better off to go back to the hotel".</p>
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<p>That wasn't quite good enough for me and after walking another block I stumbled upon a bus that had National Palace Museum written on it. Two stops and maybe ten minutes later I was on the steps of the museum.</p>
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<p>The exhibits were actually pretty cool. It was interesting to see just how old Chinese culture really is. It was fascinating to see just how far ahead they were for so many years. We, as Americans, tend to think that we're the most advanced society in the world. This may be true, but if it is, it hasn't been for long.</p>
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<p>On to the important part though. If the National Palace Museum is the "Smithsonian of Taiwan", the Jadeite Cabbage would be the Hope Diamond. I stood in line for at least 30 minutes to see it, and boy was it something. I have never before in my life seen a stone so accurately carved into something resembling food.</p>
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<p><a href="/assets/2014-01-taiwan-natl-museum-66.jpg"><img src="/assets/2014-01-taiwan-natl-museum-66_m.jpg" /></a></p>
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<p>In all reality, sure, the craftsmanship is nice, but I sure didn't get it. The enthusiasm for seeing this was beyond me. However the "Meat Shaped Stone" is a whole different level of stones carved to look like food... Amazing.</p>
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<p>On the way back I decided to hoof it rather than ride the bus, and it was a good idea as I came across Chiang Kai-Shek's Shilin "Official Residence". The residence was closed for repair, but the grounds were interesting. There were the obvious places, different rose gardens, Chinese gardens, and niceties of various kinds.</p>
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<p>Cooler was when I decided to get off the beaten path and take some stairs up and around the the hill overlooking the entrance to the residence. There were no signs up here, and no markers around. I don't think it's the part of the residence that the Taiwanese government likes to promote. Up on top of the hill were snipers nests pointed right<br />
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towards the entrance just out of sight from the memorial to Kai-Shek's mother.</p>
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<p><a href="/assets/2014-01-taiwan-natl-museum-53.jpg"><img src="/assets/2014-01-taiwan-natl-museum-53_m.jpg" /></a></p>
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<p>Coolest of all was what I saw on the hike down another route. At the bottom of the hill, in between a concrete wall and an outcropping of rock was a narrow entrance, it was peculiar looking so I checked behind it and found a gated tunnel that pointed directly towards the main residence. I'd bet my shoes that it was an escape tunnel in the event<br />
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that the Communists invaded.</p>
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<p>There were no signs, and no markings to indicate this, but with two snipers nests overlooking the exit to the tunnel, and a concrete barricade between it and the road, it all just fit.</p>
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<p>Cool stuff.</p>
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<p>Once I got done with that, I hopped back on the train and headed to Danshui just in time to see sunset.</p>
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<p><a href="/assets/2014-01-taiwan-natl-museum-54.jpg"><img src="/assets/2014-01-taiwan-natl-museum-54_m.jpg" /></a></p>
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