Taipei Palace Museum
The museum was very cool. There were artifacts from as old as 16th Century BC, and even a few older items. I got only one picture in before some guy in a red vest started waving a No Pictures sign at me. So here it is. If I remember correctly, this statue was carved in 200 AD.Jade was a big deal for Chinese artisans, so there were a ton of cool things crafted out of Jade. The big ticket item was the Jade Cabbage. I couldn't get a pic of it, but I found one online here.
The museum also had a large collection of books. Did you know the Chinese had wooden moveable-type printing presses about 1000 years before the printing press was invented in Europe?
One funny story... There were quite a lot of people at the museum, mostly students, but lots of others as well. At one point, Daniel said to me, "There's a lot of Japanese here." I looked around and thought he was talking about the students, so I asked him if they were who he was talking about. He said no, then, "Your eyes cannot tell the difference?" I laughed and said shook my head. In America, that probably would have started some sort of race riot, but here it's just inquisitive knowledge.
Here's a pic of what the museum looked like.
And here's a pic of Daniel, his wife Linda, and their daughter Sunny. You may have caught on the everyone I've mentioned so far has an Anglo name. I'm not sure when or why that happens, but some people go by their Anglo name all the time, and others do only when talking with Westerners. I'll have to ask some folks how that all works out.
