National Palace Museum, Art museum in Shilin District, Taipei, Taiwan
The National Palace Museum in Shilin District is a history museum that displays over 700,000 Chinese artworks and objects across several exhibition halls and specialized galleries. The collection ranges from Neolithic pottery through imperial jade pieces to calligraphy and paintings from later centuries.
In the 1940s, after the Chinese Civil War, thousands of precious pieces were moved from the Forbidden City in Beijing to Taiwan to protect them from destruction. The building in Taipei opened in the mid 1960s to display and safeguard these artworks.
The museum's name links it to the Palace Museum in Beijing, whose imperial collections form the core of the holdings. Its three curatorial departments manage bronzes with long inscriptions, early masterpieces of painting and calligraphy, rare books and official kiln ceramics, displayed by category and in chronological order.
The museum opens daily at 8:30 AM, with doors staying open until 9:00 PM on Fridays and Saturdays. Because the collection is so large, plan to spend a few hours and wear comfortable shoes.
One of the most recognized objects is a cabbage carved from jadeite, with tiny insects hidden among its leaves. The piece shows how sculptors used natural color tones in the stone to bring everyday subjects to life.
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