Part III: Sunday and Monday 4/19 and 4/20.2009

Sunday, as Maren, Ted and I continued our stay in Taipei, we headed north for a repeat visit (for Ted and me) to the amazing National Palace Museum, which houses not only one of the world's largest collections of Chinese artistic treasures (smuggled out when the Kuomintang under Chiang Kai-Shek led the non-communists out of mainland China, fleeing Mao Tse Tung's forces), but it also chronicles, therefore, nearly 5000 years of Chinese heritage and history. On display this month are many of the artifacts of one Emperor Chung-Lo of the Qing dynasty (late 1600's-1700's). The absolutely exquisite and famous jade cabbage sculpture, with katydids on the carved leaves, beautiful blue and white Ming pottery, the gentle blue-green dishware of the Song dynasty were just some of the exquisite pieces our knowledgeable guide "Sabrina" showed us.

We ate, as Ted and I had before, lunch at the fourth floor tea room, with wonderful steamed dumplings and tea. The tea I chose was kumquat tea, and I am a fan! It was wonderful!!!

Then, that afternoon we finally, after some difficulty, found our way to the renowned Yangmingshan National Park, famous for its mountains, its flowers (though we just missed the peak of that), and lush green plants, tress and bushes.

We stopped by the famous Shilin night market, one of the biggest in Taipei , for a delicious snack of a fried leek dumpling:oh, so good! That held us off until dinner later nearer our hotel. A busy but nice day!








We ended our wonderful weekend stay on Monday first by a trip to a little known (at least not to our hotel staff and many others whom we asked for directions to) paper museum, established rather recently, in the mid 1990's) to honor one of the last masters of paper-making, one Chen Su-Huo, who was unfortunately killed, (along with his wife,) in an airplane crash in 1990. What fun! Along with a group of 4 to 6 year olds, who were on a field trip to this tiny museum, we made paper. I am including a short video of some of what we did! Also, despite its modest size, the museum had a wonderful hands-on section that was highly educational concerning the different types of paper, the different attributes of the various kinds, etc.


Then we went and enjoyed the changing of the guards and the beautiful gardens of Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall before boarding the HSR (high speed railroad) to return to Kaohsiung!