國立故宮博物院

The afternoon at the National Palace Museum (國立故宮博物院) was not pleasant, through no fault of the museum. We were among the hordes of tourists thronging the galleries, and arrived at the peak after-lunch hour. Stationed at every corner on every level, the harried museum staff held up signs to request for visitors to talk softly and not shout, and tried to stop all forms of photography. Housing the world's largest collection of Chinese art spanning the Neolithic to late Qing, these historical artefacts rarely travel out of Taiwan, for fear that China might impound them. Ahh, the excitement of history, political upheaval and wars, and the uneasy truce of cross-strait relations.

Everybody wanted to see the museum's prized jadeite piece carved into the shape of a head of cabbage (Qing Dynasty) and a piece of jasper carved into the likeness of a piece of braised pork belly meat Shanghai-style(東坡肉). Queues formed outside the tiny space, and small groups of tourists had to be staggered and let in to view the pieces. Was not surprised to be shoved aside by tourists hailing from a shall-remain-unnamed country. I had enough when a man jabbed my boobs in his urgency to plaster his face against the glass casing of the pieces of jade. He couldn't get past since there were others around and I was trying to get out of the crowd. I addressed him directly, and asked him nicely not to push. He replied in Mandarin, "Why can't I push?" and proceeded to elbow me again. I would have loved to smash his ribs. But I did nothing of that sort. Getting out was priority. So I walked away from the confrontation, picking the quickest exit route, and conveniently stomping on his foot with an extra crunch as I slid through the surging masses.

18th century Qing. Jade snuff bottles in the shape of eggplants.

Then, among the galleries, groups of aged 'aunties' and 'uncles' simply pushed past everyone else to view the exhibits. I was most annoyed by this group of 'aunties' who rolled past me and effectively pushed me out of the way because they were many and I was one. Listened closer to their conversation and realized they were from yet another not-unfamiliar-shall-remain-unnamed country. No wonder lah. They were damn fierce each time I ran into them on the subway in their city.

I didn't understand why the jade gallery attracted a ton of visitors, and other galleries were mercifully quieter. What is with jade and the older Chinese folks? To them, the value of jade seemed to be more precious than gold. Anyway, I retreated from anything-jade rather fast. STILL. It was not a wasted afternoon. I had calm in plenty other galleries where peaceful paintings and calligraphy ruled. But yes, imho, the National Palace Museum of Taipei has a way more impressive historical collection (of Chinese Art) than both the Shanghai Museum and Beijing's National Museum of China put together.

Didn't stay as long as we would have liked. Left within 2 hours. It was frazzling trying to view items over people's heads and shoulders. Many didn't get the concept of see, read and move on. They stayed there, yakked, pulled their friends over and occupied the coveted space in front of popular exhibits for as long as they liked. It was just impossible to fight our way through so many people. Hadn't seen a museum this crowded for a long while.