Taipei, Taiwan part 1

ME and I were in Taipei last weekend. We were very interested in seeing the National Palace Museum, widely regarded as the world's greatest collections of Chinese art. To make a very long story short during the Chinese Civil War, 1926-1950, the great treasures collected by the ancient emperors throughout the last 8000 years was crated up from the Palace Museum in the Forbidden City in Beijing and eventually shipped to Taipei for safe keeping. In 1960 funding for a building was received and in 1965 the museum was opened. It houses a collection of 693,507 pieces of ancient Chinese artifacts and artworks making it the largest in the world. Even though I have no pictures from the museum, ME and I spent most of the day walking around the museum with our headsets. It was very interesting. Here is a link to the museum,  http://www.npm.gov.tw/en/home.htm.

Several times throughout our stay in China, Chinese tourists coming in from the country have stopped ME and ask if they could pose with her for a picture. Outside the National Palace Museum she was once again stopped and asked for a picture.

ME being a good international ambassador.  

In late afternoon we visited Taipei 101. It is a 101 story building and was the tallest building in the world from 2004 to 2010. It has the fastest ascending elevator speed taking 37 seconds to the top at a speed of 1010 meters per minute. It was also awarded the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification for the tallest and largest green building in the world. Here are several links for more information.

 http://www.taipei-101.com.tw/index_en.htm click on "Tower" and then "Building Information" for more fun facts on the building. This is what Wikipedia says http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taipei_101 lots of interesting facts 

When arriving at the observation deck at the 98th floor you were given a telephone. There were 13 information points located around the edge of the deck which gave you information and history about the view you were looking at and a tidbit about the building, it was very well done.

click on to enlarge