Touristing
This afternoon I did some touristy things here in Taipei. I started off at the National Palace Museum at about noon. To get there from my current lodgings I took the MRT for about twenty minutes, and then switched to a bus for about another ten. It was my first time on a bus here, and I was again impressed with the public transit system here in Taipei. It is cheap, clean, comfortable, and extensive. Nonetheless many locals seem to prefer the freedom offered by their scooters. While riding the bus this morning I saw a not uncommon sight. It was an entire family piled onto one tiny scooter. The father was driving, while his wife clung onto his back. Meanwhile his legs were splayed apart to free up room where his feet would normally go for both of his children to stand at attention. The child in front held onto the middle of the handle bars, while the child behind her held onto her sister’s shoulders. Between the children’s feet was the family dog curled up into an impossibly small space. I guess it makes for a fuel efficient way to transport four people and a dog, and saves on parking charges.
The National Palace Museum houses what many consider to be the best collection of Chinese art and artifacts in the world. The KMT brought them from the mainland for ‘safe keeping’ during the withdrawal. Mainlanders gripe about this cultural ‘theft’ but considering the various upheavals the mainland has gone through since ’49 it is probably for the best that these priceless items are safe and sound here in Taipei. The collection is so vast only a fraction can be displayed at any one time. Thus the exhibits are rotated on a fairly regular basis. Today there was a display of Imperial name stamps, jade artifacts, calligraphy, ancient maps of Asia (these were all of European origin), Buddhist and Hindu statuary, and some highlights of the museum’s porcelain, ivory and jade collections. My personal highlight was one of the museum’s most famous pieces. It is a single piece of ivory carved into an incredibly ornate and intricate decorative item. Somehow the artisan managed to carve seventeen concentric spheres from this single piece of ivory. The spheres are held within a framework made of the same piece of ivory which is suspended from chain, yet again carved from the same material.
Beyond the concentric ivory spheres, I found myself gravitating towards items which had more utilitarian backgrounds. I can only stand to look at so many decorative items in one day. However, items that had a purpose when they were made are more evocative to me. I prefer to be fascinated by things which were used by real living breathing people in their day to day lives rather than to be dazzled by some decoration which has spent its entire existence being appreciated only because it is particularly pleasing to the eye and constructed of some valuable substance.
One could spend a lot of time in the museum, as there is a lot to see. However today was Saturday and I found it a bit too crowded to really take my time and enjoy myself. I can’t count the number of times I was looking closely at some object only to be quickly surrounded by a pack of tourists (almost invariably Japanese) and their very loud guide. This particular breed of tourist has no inhibitions about jostling people out of the way to get a better look at whatever it is the guide is describing to them. Eventually I got hungry and left to browse around some other touristy areas, and get some dinner.