The second day of our trip was filled with some fantastic site seeing and museum visits! Our day began at the National Palace Museum where we explored the some of the most famous pieces of Jade works as well as explored the rich history and evolution of Jade throughout the overlapping history of China and Taiwan, getting to see some of the most famous pieces at the museum including the Jadeite cabbage which we were lucky to catch live at the museum. Another really interesting piece in the exhibit was reading some of the historical contexts to Jades significance, reading the “Art in Quest of Heaven and Truth” exploring the multi century evolution of both the crafting of the ore and also the evolution of its significance to many royal families.
After our tour at the National Palace Museum we took an absolutely breathtaking drive up the mountains into Yangming Park and also to Yangmingshan National Park. Getting to explore outside the massive city scapes of Taipei was a beautiful contrast to what we had already been exploring. Seeing both the way homes were tucked into the mountain side and exploring the presidential homestead park atop the mountain was fantastic. Talking to Dr Yao about the inspirations for the naming of the park was a really interesting fact to learn.
The mountains and waterfalls were stunning and beautifully tucked away into the mountain side, climbing further up also showed the massive scale of the mountain peaks throughout the northern region. The sulfur veins, while smelly, were very cool to see such a unique natural phenomenon taking place so close. For such a small landmass the geological variations all over just a small part of the county was stunning to see.
