The National Palace Museum Taipei, Taiwan
The world’s largest and most valuable collection of Chinese art—nearly 700,000 pieces—is housed at the National Palace Museum in Taipei, one of the most visited museums on the planet. Only a small fraction— about 15,000 pieces, rotated every three months—is exhibited at any one time. It would take 12 years to see the entire treasure trove.
Displays are vastly improved following renovations completed in 2006. The works are jaw-dropping, with artifacts spanning eight millennia from prehistory to the early 20th century. Many of the paintings, calligraphy, bronzes, ceramics, rare books, sumptuous jade carvings, curios, and coins come from Beijing’s Forbidden City and were once part of the private collections of Chinese emperors. Some of the most significant items remain on permanent display. A ruffled Chinese cabbage with a delicate carved grasshopper hidden among the leaves made of a single piece of white/green jadeite was nominated by the public as the museum’s most
outstanding treasure. Another superb artwork is the Qingming Scroll, a great masterpiece of Chinese painting depicting a Song Dynasty festival. Also a crowd-pleaser for its blend of western and Chinese influences is a 1728 study of horses by Jesuit missionary Giuseppe Castiglione.
Almost as interesting as the collection is the story of how it came to Taipei. Some 13,000 crates of these treasures were hauled around mainland China as the Japanese advanced during World War II. The nationalists, led by Chiang Kai-shek, shipped the best pieces to Taiwan as they fled 1949’s Communist takeover. They were stored in a railway warehouse, then a sugarcane factory until a new museum building opened in 1965.
After he established a new Taiwanese government, Chiang Kai-shek had the Grand Hotel built near the museum to house foreign ambassadors and VIP guests; in the 1960s, the Grand was considered one of the world’s finest hotels. It’s not quite as majestic as it used to be,but old-hotel buffs still love it. For an experience of more contemporary chic, Shangri-La’s Far Eastern Plaza Hotel soars 43 stories above Taipei’s business district and has rooms and suites overlooking the city skyline.
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