National Palace Museum

The National Palace Museum is in Taiwan.

It holds many old treasures. There are nearly 700,000 pieces. These include paintings and jade.

Some items were moved to keep them safe. They were kept in crates. Many pieces came from a big palace.

You can see a jade cabbage. It has small grasshoppers on it. It is a very popular piece.

There are also beautiful gardens. They have ponds and wooden houses. It is a special place to visit.

The National Palace Museum is in Taipei, Taiwan.

It holds nearly 700,000 pieces of art and history. These items show 8,000 years of Chinese history. The collection includes paintings, jade, and bronze tools. It even has rare books and old coins.

Many pieces were moved to stay safe. In the 1930s, people put treasures in crates. They moved them to hide them from an army. Later, more items were sent to Taiwan. This included some of the best items from the Forbidden City.

You can see many famous things there. One popular piece is a jade cabbage. It is a green stone carved to look like a cabbage. It has tiny grasshoppers hiding in the leaves. The museum also has beautiful gardens.

These gardens have ponds and wooden houses. They use a special style to look natural. There is also a second garden called Zhide Garden.

The museum has a second branch in Chiayi too.

The National Palace Museum is a very special place in Taipei, Taiwan.

It holds nearly 700,000 pieces of art and history. These items tell a story that spans 8,000 years. The collection shows life from the Neolithic era to the modern day. It includes many treasures from the Ming and Qing dynasties. These items once lived in the Forbidden City. People visit to see the skill of ancient artists. It is a place where history feels alive.

Many treasures had to travel a long way to stay safe. In the 1930s, people moved items to protect them from an army.

They put many objects into thousands of crates. These crates moved through cities like Shanghai and Nanjing. Later, during the Chinese Civil War, more art was sent to Taiwan. A leader named Chiang Kai-shek helped move these pieces. Hang Li-wu supervised the transport of many items to the harbor. Even though not all items made it, the best ones arrived in Taiwan.

Once in Taiwan, the art was kept in many different places. It was stored in a railway warehouse in Yangmei first. Later, it moved to a cane sugar mill near Taichung. A group called the Joint Managerial Office was formed to look after it. They eventually moved the collection to a mountain village called Beigou. In 1957, they opened a small hall to show some items. Finally, a large museum was built in Waishuanxi. This new museum opened to the public in August 1965.

The museum has many different kinds of amazing things. There are over 6,000 bronze pieces and 25,000 ceramics. You can find beautiful jade carvings and many paintings. One famous piece is the Jadeite Cabbage. It is a green stone carved to look like a real vegetable. It even has small grasshoppers hiding in the leaves! The museum also has a southern branch in Taibao. This branch opened in 2015 after many years of work. It is built to stay safe from floods and earthquakes.

Visitors can enjoy more than just looking at art. The museum has beautiful gardens on its grounds. The Zhishan Garden is built in a classical style.

It has ponds, waterworks, and wooden pavilions. There is also a second garden called Zhide Garden.

You can even visit the home of a famous painter named Chang Dai-chien. The museum makes sure to keep the art in special rooms. This helps the old pieces stay safe for a long time.

The National Palace Museum is a premier institution dedicated to preserving Chinese history and art.

Headquartered in Taipei, Taiwan, it serves as a massive repository for cultural heritage. The museum holds a permanent collection of nearly 700,000 artifacts and artworks. These pieces span 8,000 years of history, from the Neolithic era to the modern age. The collection primarily consists of items from the imperial collections of the Ming and Qing dynasties. These treasures were originally housed in the Forbidden City. Today, the museum acts as a vital link to the past for people worldwide.

The journey of these artifacts was often dangerous and required careful planning. In 1931, following the Mukden Incident, the Nationalist Government ordered an evacuation. They wanted to protect the most valuable pieces from the Imperial Japanese Army. Between February and May 1933, 13,491 crates of objects were moved to Shanghai in five groups.

Later, during the Second Sino-Japanese War, the collection moved westward through routes including Anshun and Leshan. After the Japanese surrendered in 1945, the items were shipped back to Nanjing. This period of movement was essential to ensure the survival of these historical treasures.

During the Chinese Civil War, the collection faced another major transition. Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek decided to evacuate the arts to Taiwan. Between December 1948 and February 1949, Hang Li-wu supervised the transport of items from Nanjing to the Keelung harbor. Many institutions participated in this massive effort to save the art. The National Beijing Palace Museum sent 2,972 crates, which represented 22% of the crates originally sent south. Other groups, like the National Central Library, also sent hundreds of crates. Although not all pieces could be moved, the items that arrived in Taiwan were some of the very best.

Once the artifacts reached Taiwan, they were kept in several temporary locations. They were first stored in a railway warehouse in Yangmei. Later, they were moved to a cane sugar mill near Taichung. In 1949, the Executive Yuan created the Joint Managerial Office to oversee the collection. This office eventually moved the items to a mountain village called Beigou for better security. In 1957, a small exhibition hall opened in Beigou with four galleries. Finally, a permanent museum was built in the Taipei suburb of Waishuanxi. This facility, originally called the Chung-Shan Museum, opened in August 1965.

The museum's collection is organized into many specialized categories. It includes 6,280 bronzes and 25,623 ceramics. There are also 13,589 jades and 6,762 paintings. The museum holds 216,539 rare books and over 395,000 Qing archival documents. Because the collection is so vast, only about 1% of the items are exhibited at any given time. The rest are kept safe in temperature-controlled vaults. This rotation allows the museum to show different works, such as calligraphy, every three months. This system ensures that the items remain in excellent condition for future generations.

Many specific items within the collection are famous for their extreme skill and rarity. The museum holds the world's largest collection of Ru ware, which is a very rare type of Song dynasty ceramic. Among the metalworks, the Zong Zhou Zhong is a significant musical instrument. The Mao Gong Ding is a bronze cauldron that carries the longest known Chinese bronze inscriptions. One of the most beloved pieces is the Jadeite Cabbage. This jadeite carving is shaped like a cabbage head with two small grasshoppers camouflaged in the leaves. These objects demonstrate the incredible artistry of different Chinese eras.

The museum grounds offer more than just indoor galleries. The Zhishan Garden is a classical Chinese garden built in the Song and Ming styles.

It uses principles like feng shui and landscape design, featuring ponds and wooden pavilions. A second garden, the Zhide Garden, is also located on the grounds.

In 2015, a Southern Branch opened in Taibao, Chiayi County. This branch is a massive 9,000-square-meter building designed to be earthquake and flood resistant. These various sites and gardens create a complete cultural experience for every visitor.