National Museum

Day 33
Last day, my cousin Chen Chen gave me free tickets to National Museum and it was the only day I had left to squeeze it in.  

These swords are 5 thousand years old. 

The creative details on them are just beautiful and amazing.  The things I didn't get to see in museums in China, I got to see in Taiwan.

Swords from Neolithic period.



More swords from various periods in China.









This is one of my favorite Buddhist images of Maitreya Bodhisattva from what is now Pakistan region, 823 BCE.  












Yes it is not allowed in the museum to take photos and I did anyways.  The cameras caught me and security guards were sent to follow me around each floor. Each floor a different security guard of the floor was notified to follow me.  I finally lost the last one when a tour bus of people flocked the floor.  

I also enjoyed the Chinese Calligraphy script and brush work section.  The scrolls were just amazing.  I like the one called "Market by the River" it's a mural scroll.  It depicted life of many different areas of social class and stages of life.  There were no women on the streets, they were all inside with children.  It was beautifully done.  

I had to race through all the artifacts on the floor with Islamic work.  That same floor also had beautiful work from Mongol and Russia, totally just beautiful.  

After the museum I still had plenty of time because my midnight plane is still hours away.  I decided to go to my favorite places that was near by to eat some more yummy food for dinner.  

At the airport I had to pay an extra 1,000 yuan ($30.) for over staying my no VISA 30 day entry by 2 days and I had to sign a form saying I can not enter the country until a whole year from now without a VISA.  

Breakfast 247 Shop in ShiLin

Day 32
Had to soak in the hot spring again before I leave tomorrow, one last dip.  Then I decided to get off in 
ShiLin Breakfast 247 place by exiting the metro at ZhiShan.  It's great to be able to get breakfast flaky flat bread and fried dough with fresh soy bean milk.

How this fried dough came about was historically, someone was famous for being a traitor who betrayed his country and friends.  When justice came and he was arrested, people celebrated by molding dough into his body shape and fried it and then ate it.  



Went to 3rd uncle's for dinner.  His wife is such a great cook. The simplicity of wonton soup is just great with a few pieces of Chinese celery for crunch and flavor.

I don't usually like rice noodle sticks unless it is done in traditional Taiwanese flavor, and texture.  This was delicious.  

Sweet sticky rice with home made red bean paste.

Then I went to 2nd uncle's place for tea.  

He makes strong good tea, Taiwan style, there are more like tea shots.  I think I was there drinking tea for hours till 2am.

Dried mango from yesterday's trip. Very delicious, sweet and chewy.

My cousin Wei Xiang who recently got married showed me his wedding photo album. He and his wife are both day soap script writers who work out of the home and goes in the studio for meetings once a week.

Purple charcol is used to keep the leaves fresh and dry.  It is damp and humid in Taiwan, put a stick or two underneath the lid above paper protecting the tea leaves.  The art and care of tea is a culture in itself.

He keeps his tea in clay pot, old school.  He is a beautiful calligrapher and he write his own label for the pots.

He has a little tea table and lots of great tea and, and a pot for each one.