Weekend in Taipei

So...last weekend I took the High Speed Rail to Taipei and spent an entire afternoon in the National Palace Museum.  Please forgive me if I don't have the facts just right, but, best I understand, they have the ENTIRE emperor's collection---yes, generations of art treasures originally housed in the Forbidden city in Beijing.  This collection was whisked away to Taiwan during a war in which people feared it would be destroyed.  http://www.npm.gov.tw/en/home.htm

It was amazing, if not overwhelming....ink paintings, calligraphy, bronzes, carved objects of jade, furniture....all of exquisite quality.  My favorites were the landscape paintings of a buddhist monk Lu Hong (sp? bad memory on my part) and the 17th - 20th century intricate curio boxes.  The monk lived in a thatch hut and would venture out between his meditations to create ethereal poetry and paintings about nature. 

The curio boxes are like puzzles that require you to play with them to figure out how to open each part....and the parts slowly reveal dainty little objects of delight. 

I had dinner with the awesome friends of Darcy, Carl and Nat (Ferris wheel at the mall):

 The next day, Sam took me to the town of Yingge, which was known for its production of ceramics.  Thank you so much Sam for the most fun day I have had in Taiwan so far!!  Okay, this was the highlight of my trip.  The ceramics museum was a gorgeous contemporary design housing ceramics from neolithic to present with several themed exhibits by contemporary artists.  I will allow just a few images to tell the story....

This is the garden outside the restaurant where we had a late lunch.....dinner down at the ocean but no pics.