Culture

This is a post I should have put up a couple of weeks ago, when we had that workshop, but the week was so exhausting that I could not do it. And it was exhausting because of the workshop that made me stay out of my office most of the time, and because of the unavoidable social life one gets with people attending the talks: dinner and post-dinner activities. One good thing, though, is that I joined them to do some sightseeing. In the two months or so that at the time I had been in Taiwan, I had made several outings, but few visits around Taipei. And I should start fixing that.

So, on Saturday, two weeks ago, we went to the National Palace Museum, which has one of the most important, if not the most important, chinese art collections in the world. They are basically the imperial treasures, which they took out of Beijing in 49. The museum is located in the northern part of Taipei, far from the city centre and not very well communicated. But we were four, and the taxi was quite cheap.

It had been years since the last time I had entered one of these big museums. Not because I dislike them, but because I know I will end up very tired after the four or five hours I am sure I will spend inside. That's the reason I did not visit big museums in Paris or Madrid recently. I decided to skip this rule and go, this time.


And it was very good. I have never been a big fan of chinese art, but there were lots of very nice, interesting, and impressive things on exhibition. We did not finish visiting the whole museum, because some were too tired and complained, but it was worth it. Particularly, because it is not an unsufferable accumulation of objects, even if being part of the emperor's collections, there are things that only called to the personal obssessions of one emperor or the other. In fact, it could be argued that it is almost frugal. I guess I will go back eventually, it's worth it. Specially, because they change many pieces every few months.

We took a taxi after that and went to the Jade market, which is found closer to the center. I was very very surprised by the amount of sellers and all the different kinds of jades, little figures, necklaces, etc. And the prizes of some!.


Next stop was a handicraft market near the TaiDa hospital. Four stories of all types of chinese handicraft. It's a very good place to find a present or ideas for it.

We finished the evening with a "hot pot" dinner in Gongguan (a pot with boiling soup where you put whatever you want to eat) and some beers to say good-bye to the visitors. Nice, in general. Good company, but I was very tired too.

I also became aware of one funny thing. Compared to just-arrived westerners, how differently I react to things here and how much I am becoming familiar with mandarin. Now, I should study a little bit more, maybe.