Taiwan: Day Three (13 Mar)

The weather was forecast to be bad this day.. it was said that there would be occasional rain in the city.. so I decided to spend my day at the National Palace Museum (故宫博物院)..

Took the train to 士林站 on the 淡水线 and then took a bus, Bus No. 红30 (NT$15/¥42/SGD$0.70). The journey took less than 15 minutes..


I managed to get a student discount with my student pass, so I paid only half the adult price, at NT$80 (about ¥225/SGD$3.60). On top of this, I paid another NT$100 (about ¥280/SGD$4.50) for the audio guide. I even went to the souvenir shop to get a notebook to record down some of the interesting stuff and collect the commemorative stamps along the exhibition halls.

As I am very interested in China's history, I read almost all the accompanied explanation tags, listen to the audio guide for almost every item available and took my time to admire all those artifacts on display.. I went into the museum slightly after 10am and only got out after 4pm.. So all in all, I spent more than 6 hours there!!! :p :p :p




As I got out from the Museum, only then did I realize that I had not eaten anything for almost a day!! And since 士林夜市 is only one train stop away, I decided to go there and get my dinner! :) Bought myself a 豪大大鸡排，宜兰葱饼，大饼包小饼 and 八宝绵绵冰..

Some thoughts of the day:
There were many tourist groups at the National Palace Museum.. and yet, one can easily single out which groups are from Mainland China, Japan and Korea.. From their mannerism and the way they carry themselves, it was so easy to see which groups are more refined and which groups are uncultured.

Those tourists from Mainland Chinese are not doing themselves much flavors while holidaying overseas.. They are freaking loud, obnoxious and plain rude!!! They are annoying everyone around them by behaving so uncivilized.. I really felt like asking them to get out of the museum less they "defile" this cultural treasure trove of an ancient civilization. Sometimes I think that it was a blessing that the KMT took all these treasures out, else who knows what would have happened to these priceless artifacts when the Cultural Revolution swept in and robbed even the basic 礼仪廉耻 from the people there..


Summary of what I ate for the day:
豪大大鸡排，宜兰葱饼，大饼包小饼, 八宝绵绵冰

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