Museum sights in Taipei
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National Palace Museum
Considered by many a must-visit, this museum is home to what could quite easily be termed the world's largest and finest collection of Chinese art. This vast collection (much of it liberated from mainland China during the last retreat of the KMT) is far too large to exhibit at any given time, so most of the museum's treasures are on rotation.
Among the treasures to be seen at the National Palace Museum are painting, calligraphy, statues and ceramic and jade. Some pieces date back thousands of years into Chinese history and even prehistory. The museum also has an amazing collection of Buddhist artefacts inherited from the Forbidden City. Some of the most popular items are…
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Taipei Astronomical Museum
Opened in 1997, this museum houses four floors of constellations, ancient astronomy, space science and technology, telescopes and observatories. Though a good place to while away an hour with the kids, what keeps this otherwise excellent museum from being a must-visit is a dearth of English content. Although every exhibit features English and Chinese, most of the actual information is in the latter language only. A recorded English-language guide is available, though the information is fairly basic. More English-friendly attractions (at an extra charge) are an IMAX theatre, a 3-D theatre (presentations change frequently) and the 'Cosmic Adventure', an amusement-park ride…
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Miniatures Museum of Taiwan
Bigger is better, so some say; but not at the Miniatures Museum of Taiwan, where quite the opposite is true. This small, private museum is dedicated to the exhibition of the minuscule, the tiny, the 'I can't believe someone had the patience and steadiness of hand to create something so small and intricate!'. Among the items on display are dollhouse-sized replications of some of Europe's most classic structures, as well as dolls in full period regalia. The gift shop, though small (naturally) is also fairly impressive.
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Discovery Centre of Taipei
The Discovery Centre of Taipei is a good place to get your bearings on the city and its history. You can see maps and models depicting Taipei's evolution from a walled, gated city in 1882 to the bustling metropolis it is today. Discover more about its geography, topography, commerce, famous residents and natural resources. There's a free audio guide in English, and guided tours are available with advance notice.
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National Taiwan Science Education Centre
Interactive exhibits at this children's museum cover the gamut of scientific knowledge, from anatomy (a walk-through digestive tract!) to zoology (a cat-head-shaped helmet that gives the wearer feline hearing powers). Though the NTSEC is not fully bilingual, museum staff have gone to great lengths to include enough English content to make the whole museum accessible to non-Chinese speakers.
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Taipei Children's Art Museum
Opened in 2003, this highly interactive children's museum was designed specifically to encourage children to participate in the creation of art. The museum features life-sized walk-through panoramas painted in the styles of various famous artists, as well as galleries featuring artwork done by children themselves.
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Su Ho Paper Museum
Don't blink or you might walk right past the storefront housing this four-storey museum. Fulfilling the lifelong dream of Taiwanese paper- maker Mr Chen Su Ho, this museum features special exhibits of ultracreative uses of paper (such as paper sculpture or installation art). Exhibits change two or three times a year, and there's a beautiful spot on the 2nd floor with pillows surrounding a book-filled tree (made of paper, of course) tailor-made for relaxing.
The museum shop sells cards, elegant kites and other trinkets constructed from handmade paper. Paper-making classes take about 15 minutes and happen daily at 10am, 11am, 2pm and 3pm. On the roof of the museum is a…
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Shung Ye Museum of Formosan Aborigines
Featuring the history and artefacts of Taiwan's indigenous peoples (of which there are currently 14 recognised tribes), this tastefully put- together museum features soft lighting and an interesting array of exhibits. Fine examples of Taiwanese aboriginal handicrafts are displayed and video footage offers an educational summary of the histories of the tribes themselves.
While the culture of Taiwan's aboriginal people was nearly subsumed as Han Chinese overtook the island both culturally and demographically, in the past decade there's been a remarkable upswing of interest among Taiwanese people towards their aboriginal brethren, due perhaps in part to the wishes of many in…
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Museum of Contemporary Art Taipei
Demonstrating Taipei's determination to be taken seriously as a city with a taste for art, Taiwan's first museum dedicated explicitly to contemporary art occupies an important Japanese-era building that was once Taipei's city hall. Shows are all special exhibits and fill anything from one gallery to the entire museum; at press time, MOCA Taipei was featuring an exhibit by cutting-edge American artist David LaChapelle, whose apocalyptic themes (as well as nudity) managed to raise few eyebrows in this once artistically conservative culture. Multilingual MP3 players designed to guide visitors through the museum are available with a deposit of either NT$1000 or a passport.…
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Fine Arts Museum
Con- structed in the 1980s, this airy, four-storey box of marble, glass and concrete showcases contemporary art, with a particular focus on Taiwanese artists. These include pieces by Taiwanese painters and sculptors from the Japanese period to the present. Right next door to the Fine Arts Museum and keeping roughly the same hours is the Taipei Story House. Built in 1914 by an aristocratic tea trader, the house is an exhibition space for Taipei nostalgia and history. Exhibits change frequently and might include goodies such as toys, matchboxes and comic books. The gift shop features the work of a dozen local artists and the tearoom serves afternoon tea and French-style…
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Postal Museum
Can't imagine six storeys of exhibits about mail and stamps? Think again. This museum showcases around 80,000 stamps from over 120 countries, postal uniforms, hardware and signage from around 30 countries, plus models of Taiwanese mail-delivery methods of yore (buffalo-skin raft, anyone?). It's as quirky as it is impressive.
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Children's Recreation Centre
The large Children's Recreation Centre features a 'world of yesterday' with historical Chinese toys and folk arts, and a 'world of tomorrow' with, among other things, a planetarium.
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Tittot Glass Art Museum
From the outside, this museum just south of Guandu MRT station looks sort of like a factory. Inside, however, beautiful glassware objects are displayed on two levels. Glass-blowing demonstrations are held daily, and classes are given in glassmaking.
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Taiwan Folk Arts Museum
Though the museum only opened in 2008, the building itself, an old wooden structure, has a history dating back to the Japanese occupation. Today the Taiwan Folk Arts Museum displays artwork from Taiwanese indigenous people as well as historical relics of traditional Taiwanese and Japanese folk culture. The museum also has a quaint Japanese-style restaurant offering tea and set meals from NT$580 to NT$880.
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Taipei Contemporary Art Center
The sort of spot you'd expect to come across in Berkeley or Melbourne, TCAC's existence in Taipei is yet another sign of how cool the city is becoming. The small, privately run museum and gallery space offers a wide and rather eclectic variety of exhibits, both of local and international artists, as well as hosting parties, international DJs and other hipster-attracting club-type events.
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Shihsanheng Museum of Archaeology
This museum offers exhibits on the archaeological history of Taiwan's earliest residents. A variety of installations show the earliest evidence of aboriginal culture on the island, tracking the movements of the various tribes from prehistory to the present day. Highly interactive, the museum is surprisingly kid-friendly for a museum devoted to as scholarly a pursuit as archaeology; kids will especially like the aboriginal weaponry displays. English signage abounds and the museum staff will be happy to arrange a tour.
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Museum of Jade Art
Offering a variety of jade exhibits that nearly rivals the National Palace Museum (in beauty, though of course not in volume), this newly opened museum displays work designed by master jade artist Hu Soofeen, whose family has been involved in the jade trade for several generations. In addition to dozens of beautiful small and medium-sized jade objects, the front of the museum is taken up by an imposingly massive, movable wheel crafted of brass and jade, which can be turned to display the 12 animals and five elements of the Chinese zodiac. For a small charge (NT$50), visitors can have a photo printed of themselves standing before the wheel, customised to indicate their…
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Ketagalan Culture Centre
This multistorey centre explores Taiwan's aboriginal culture with exhibits, performances stages and various seasonal exhibits on other floors. Although signage is in Chinese, English-language leaflets explain Taiwan's tribes in detail.
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Beitou Hot Spring Museum
On the site of one of the original Japanese-era hot-spring baths, this handsome museum mixes a Victorian-style exterior with a variety of other architectural designs inside. Upstairs, wooden verandahs surround a large Japanese-style tatami room where bathers once took tea and relaxed after their baths. The former baths downstairs feel almost Roman in their construction. Don't let being asked to remove your shoes for admission fool you into getting your hopes up; there is no actual bathing allowed at this museum.
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Armed Forces Museum
Like weapons and selective retellings of 20th-century military history? Then this museum might be for you. Focusing on the military history of the Republic of China (ROC), the three-storey museum houses artefacts and items ranging from the early days of warlord pacification and the struggle against Japanese invasion to the battle between the Nationalists and communists, and finally into the ROC government's temporary movement to Taiwan. Laminated placards on the wall offer translations into English and Japanese.
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