Unlock the Treasures of Taiwan’s National Palace Museum: A Captivating Journey Through Time and Culture

If you’re a fan of museums and learning about a country’s culture and history, the Taiwan National Palace Museum is the place for you while visiting Taipei. Housing over 700,000 pieces of Chinese artwork and artifacts the museum is absolutely massive. Depending on how you like to enjoy your time at museums, you can easily spend half a day at the Taiwan National Palace. There’s a variety of different exhibits to view within the cavernous building and the surrounding area, which includes a huge pond stocked with koi fish.

The History Of The National Palace Museum And Its Artifacts

Originally established in China’s Forbidden City, the National Palace Museum has a history that dates all the way back to 1925. Due to fear of the valuable pieces falling into the hands of the Japanese, the musuem pieces were constantly on the move. From 1931 – 1947, the artifacts, artwork, and other objects of value, were shuttled within thousands of crates, from the Forbidden City to Shanghai to Nanjing to Anshun / Leshan then back to Nanjing.

In 1948, following the end of World War II, the Chinese Civil War resumed. It was due to the worsening conditions from this Civil War on mainland China that led to some of the artifacts being shipped to Taiwan. It’s estimated that about 22% of the original collection made its way to Taiwan. Much of it remained in China after the controlling Communist party had seized control of the National Beijing Palace Museum where many of the artifacts were being stored.

The collection was stored in the mountain village of Beigou, which is located in Taichung. Here it stayed in storage until a small exhibition hall was built in 1956 where a small sample of the artificats could be displayed.

By 1960 a special fund had been created for the construction of the National Palace Museum. It took over fiver year to build and opened in August of 1965. After 40 years traversing several cities, the many artificats, artwork, and other valuables, had found a permanent home.

The National Palace Museum Experience

The National Palace Museum isn’t located near a subway exit so it’s a little more complicated to get to as opposed to some of the other attractions and will require taking the bus if you plan on taking public transportation.

Once you do get there, you are greeted to a huge tree-lined walkway with the massive National Palace Museum looming in the distance. It’s really a beautiful setting since there’s nothing but lush greenery behind the museum. It takes your mind out of the busy city vibes of Taipei and transports you to another time and place in Taiwan’s history.

As you walk up to the museum, to the right there’s a path that leads to a huge pond that has walkways and bridges and pavilions with places to sit, escape the sun, and have a snack or drink. The pond is stacked with huge koi fish. It’s peaceful little place to take a stroll before or after the visit and take a breather. It’s cool little area.

Once you make the walk to the museum itself, you’ll be impressed with the sheer size of the building. It’s HUGE. The price of admission is 350 NTD ($10.89 USD).

There’s multiple levels here, each absolutely packed with exhibits stocked full of all those artifacts, artwork, and other valuables that had made the journey through all those cities decades ago.

Notable Artifacts

In total, it’s estimated the museum has accumulated nearly 700,000 artifacts. Of which, only about 1% is exhibited at a time at the National Palace Museum which is about 3,000 items. Exhibits and items can get swapped out and the remaining items are stored in temperature controlled vaults.

Of all the artifacts and items at the museum, there are two which are very popular and famous.

The Jadeite Cabbage is a piece of jade that’s carved into the shape of a cabbage head with a small grasshopper hidden amongst its leaves. It’s a beautiful piece of craftsmanship.

The Meat Shaped Stone is a piece of jasper, which was carved into a piece of pork, which looks incredibly real.

Based off the official website, you’re not supposed to post any pictures of the actual artifacts on sites like this so I decided not to include any pictures of anything within the museum itself, unfortunately.

Is The National Palace Museum Worth Visiting?

If you’re going to Taipei the National Palace Museum should certainly be circled on your list of places to visit within the city. It has so much history within its walls. The exhibits are impressive and huge and are all very nicely displayed. The museum building is massive and it will take some time to walk through if you want to really see everything and learn about all the pieces displayed. The property itself is quite nice to walk around, especially the nearby pond area.