Table of Contents
What is the National Palace Museum?
The National Palace Museum tells the story of Ancient Chinese history all the way to the modern age by showing tools, objects, pottery and paintings. The Calligraphy section show the Chinese characters evolved over time. The paintings give a nice insight in how life in China looked like centuries ago.
The National Palace Museum has in total 3 different floors with objects :
floor 1: History of china,
floor 2: Calligraphy and paintings,
floor 3: Jade objects.
Is the National palace museum worth visiting?
Yes, I feel the National Palace museum in Taipei is definitely worth a visit on your trip to Taiwan. The displayed items are of the highest quality possible. Also the Jade objects showcase the amazing craftmanship of the people in those time periods.
If I had to point one negative then it would be the calligraphy section. I understand calligraphy is a big part of Chinese (writing) history and how Chinese characters changed over time it definitely should be displayed but as a non-Chinese speaker/reader this section of the museum was less interesting to me.
Opening times of the National Palace Museum
opening times: Tuesday to Sunday between 09:00 and 17:00. Closed on Mondays.
What is the admission fee of the National Palace Museum?
| Category | cost | for who |
| Regular ticket | NTD $350 | General audiences |
| discount | NTD $150 | R.O.C citizens with valid ID students with vail international student ID |
| free | free admision | visitors (of all nationalities) under the age of 17 (17 included) |
| groups | NTD $320 | groups of 10 and more |
A special note: There is free admission to the museum on New Year’s Day (Jan. 1), the Lantern Festival, International Museum Day (May 18), World Tourism Day (Sept. 27), National Day (Oct. 10) and Taiwan Culture Day(Oct. 17).
How to get to the National palace museum?
Address: No.221, Sec. 2, Zhishan Rd., Shilin Dist., Taipei City 11143, Taiwan
From Taipei main station take the red metro (Tamsui-xinyi line) to shilin station. Take exit 1 and walk to the bus station on Zhongzheng road. From there you can take Bus R30, 815,304CQN, 304CD, 300, 255, S19, S18 or M1 to National palace museum. It takes about 15 minutes by bus. For real-time bus information I would suggest to use google-maps. That almost always works for me.
For more information about the National palace museum click here to go to their website.
Personal opinion about the main exhibitions of the Museum
I personally loved to see the exhibition of pottery. Every dynasty had his distinct style and you could realy see how quality improved over the centuries.
A whole section is dedicated to paintings. It are not the european style paintings I am used of from european Museums but ink on paper paintings. The quality of the paintings is very good and the level of detail is amazing. You get really “sucked in” into the world of ancient China.
The final piece of the Museum and the most amazing object is found on the top floor of the museum: a Jade Cabbage. The quality and level of detail unbelievable. The skill of the maker shows in the level of detail.
I went to the National Palace Museum now several times and every time I get amazed again by the items displayed. I always arrive early afternoon and every time left when outside started to become dark!
Southern Branch of the National palace museum
Due to the large collection of items the museum had in storage since a couple of years also a southern Branch of the National palace museum is open in the city of Taibao. I haven’t had the chance of going there yet. The website of the southern branch of the National palace museum can be found here.