Day 12: Taipei National Palace Museum and taking it easy

Feb 10

Today I had a great visit to the Taipei National Palace Museum, starting with a 10am English tour. We wore receivers with headphones, and our tour guide had a microphone attached to her chest. Her voice was projected into our headphones, which made it very easy to hear her even when there was a lot of noise in the room or when she was far away. I was impressed by this little piece of technology.


It's a modern museum and well laid-out, with an informative orientation room where our guide gave us an overview of Chinese history and Chinese art. Then we dove into the collections, and the excellent tour lasted about an hour. I enjoyed having time on my own to slowly wander around the museum and the grounds, and enjoyed a delicious slice of coffee walnut cake and a pot of black tea in one of the museum's cafes.

Back at my hostel, I decided to spend the rest of the day relaxing. I was staying at the Hostelling International Taipei Youth Hostel which was twice as expensive as my previous hostels, but well worth the extra cost. I was reminded of what I love about staying in hostels: there was an excellent environment for meeting fellow travelers, and I enjoyed a few exchanges of stories. Andrew was an Irish guy who lives in Tibet, working for an organization that preserves China's national parks. He was visiting Taiwan with his mother who had spent a few years teaching English there in the 1960s. Danielle told me about her cycle touring across Canada, Japan, Taiwan, and beyond. And then we all enjoyed free dinner that the hostel prepared for the Chinese New Year week.