The group of friends entered a restaurant selling authentic Taiwanese food. After having each ordered a bowl of noodles, the group of friends started discussing their upcoming destinations.
"So, where do you guys want to head next?" enquired Blythe.
"Hmmm, let's see, being a history major graduate, I'd naturally want to visit the National Palace Museum and view the amazing ancient Chinese imperial artifacts it has to offer," said Jeffrey pensively.
"What's so special about that museum? Surely, most of the famous ancient Chinese imperial artifacts are in China?" said Eliza, as she sipped on her bubble tea.
"That's what one would think, but in fact, the greatest collection of Chinese antiquities is now not in mainland China, but in Taiwan!" replied Shaun. "After the Chinese civil war in 1949, the leader of the KMT - Chiang Kai-shek took the finest and most fragile pieces of artwork of Chinese antiquity from the forbidden city with him and retreated to Taiwan."
"But, surely, the bigger ones must still be in the mainland, as they couldn't have been transported across the Taiwan Strait?" asked Claire.
"That was true, until the 1960s, when the Cultural Revolution led by the Communists raged in China, causing a huge portion of Chinese ancient artifacts to be completely destroyed. Luckily, the ones in Taiwan were saved from the catastrophe!" elucidated Jeffrey. "Now, nearly 60 years after the Cultural Revolution, the National Palace Museum in Taipei is regarded as having the world’s greatest collection of Chinese antiquities, ranging over 6000 years from the Neolithic age to the Qing dynasty."
At this moment, their food was served. Shaun ordered a bowl of Beef Noodle Soup and Jeffrey ordered Taiwanese Ta-a Noodles. The portion sizes was so large that the girls were starting to worry if they could actually finish their food, when Tiffany, after having finished her Oyster Vermicelli, walked into the restaurant, looking for them.
"Perfect timing for once, Tiffany!" exclaimed Eliza. "Come and help me finish this bowl of Taiwanese Beef Noodle Soup! There's no way I can finish this on my own."
After having finished their lunch, the group of friends headed for the National Palace Museum. As there were just too many exhibitions to see, it took them the whole afternoon to see only a small part of it. Only after everyone's stomachs were starting to grumble extremely loudly, despite having had the huge portions of noodles for lunch, did Jeffrey reluctantly agree to leave the museum to grab some dinner.
"What a shame! I can stay here all day!" sighed Jeffrey.
"Don't worry! You guys are here for a fortnight, so you'll have plenty of time to view the rest of the exhibitions later on," said Blythe. "By the way, what are your favourite exhibits?"
"My favourite is the cabbage carved from jadeite," answered Eliza. "I just love how it uses the natural colours of the jade to produce the vegetable. I also like its attention to detail. You'll only notice the grasshopper being camouflaged in the leaves if you look very closely."
"Despite the fact that I like the jade cabbage, I like the small vessel carved from the olive stone even better," responded Jeffrey. "It's so detailed that it's even hard to see the miniature figures and furniture through a magnifying glass. I also love how the windows of the tiny boat can be opened and how the 300-character poem which inspired the artwork is etched on the base of the ship."
Even if Shaun and Claire had visited the museums countless times before during their visits to Taiwan, they were still greatly intrigued by the exquisite exhibits. Only Tiffany was yawning during the whole visit as she repeatedly asked the question: "When are we going shopping?"
~To be Continued~
No comments:
Post a Comment