NATIONAL PALACE MUSEUM AND CHIANG KAI-SHEK MEMORIAL

Turns out the Dragon Boat Festival is really just a race that commemorates the suicide by drowning of an ancient poet. Yawn. Pass me another zongzi. So instead of sitting in the hot sun watching a bunch of morbid rowing, I decided to see some sights. One of my new friends here offered to take me to the National Palace Museum. I tried to take some pictures of the building and the adjacent park, but my Chinese-bought camera was malfunctioning. I'm assuming it had nothing to do with the issue of whether the Guomintang was "protecting" or "looting" the treasures of the mainland displayed therein when they hightailed it to Taiwan in 1949.

But this picture is better than I could have taken anyway. As you can see, the National Museum (Gugong bowuguan) is painted a vibrant yellow with a teal roof and sits pleasingly nestled in the lush foothills on the outskirts of the city.


Inside, you can see the famous meat stone and the equally famous jade cabbage, and you can listen to audio commentary about these "mouth-watering" treasures and try to wrap your head around about 8,000 years of history.

After casing the joint and learning new terms for words such as 'porcelain', 'intricate', 'touch', and 'fish-head-dragon-body', my companion and I headed back into the city for lunch and a visit to the Chiang Kai-Shek memorial.

This huge monument consists of four large structures on each side of a large square, with some nicely landscaped park areas within. Here is the imposing front gate.


The National Theater was undergoing renovation, but we were able to explore the National Music Hall across from it and to watch a couple of groups of teenagers on the terrace hanging out, breakdancing and doing kung-fu.


Everything on these buildings, from the railings to the doorways to the lamps and the eaves is incredibly detailed. Photographs don't do much to capture the vibrance of the colors. I was honestly almost hypnotized by the gorgeous ming red of the pillars.


Apparently the square itself isn't much used for congregating or recreating, but it is refreshing to stand in a wide open space, even a concrete one, in the middle of the dense city. Unfortunately, it is also very, very hot.


The memorial hall itself is opposite the gate. You can enter the lower level from one side, but I don't much recommend it. Better not to see the tacky souvenir shop and the jade hawkers and to instead imagine the grandeur that must lie within.


There's a pond on one side of the Music Hall with blessed shade and a pretty little bridge.


You can buy fish food from this machine and watch the Koi swarm. They make wonderful squishy sounds as they come to the surface and open and close their giant mouths to try to suck in some of the pellets. Yeah, I know - I never get pictures of the good stuff.