Lorescape Places · Taipei

National Palace Museum · Taipei, Taiwan · Opened 1965 · millennia of artifacts

How Half of China's Imperial Collection Came to Taipei

Nearly 700,000 artifacts — an entire civilization spanning thousands of years.

The museum's collection began in the imperial holdings of Beijing's Forbidden City. Through war and upheaval, crates of treasures made their way to Taiwan in the mid-20th century, finally opening to the public in 1965 at its home in Taipei's Waishuangxi.

It holds nearly 700,000 paintings, artifacts, and texts spanning the Neolithic to the late Qing. Among them, the Jadeite Cabbage — carved from a single piece of jade into leaves and a katydid — and the Meat-shaped Stone, resembling a piece of braised pork, are its most beloved treasures.

Because the collection is so vast, works are shown in rotation; you only ever see a fraction at once. Which is why knowing the story behind each piece is what it means to truly see the museum.

Don't let treasures be labels behind glass. With Lorescape, every artifact has a story you can hear as you stand before it.