Travel World
Jun – 18-2010
By: Barry Goldsmith
I’m lucky. I’ve been traveling to Taiwan since the early 1980s And since then, Taipei, along with Beijing and Shanghai, has changed even more than I have. Paris, with its tree-lined avenues and many parks, was the world’s first “Green City.” Taipei has caught up. In 2010, Taipei’s many broad avenues are also tree-lined. Taipei also has many parks. Almost every museum is in a park. The Peace Park is home to the Taiwan Museum. The Taipei Fine Arts Museum is in Taipei Art Park.
Instead of revealing the “Greening of Taipei” boulevard by boulevard, I save time by taking my press groups up to the observatory of the world’s second-tallest building, Taipei 101, where the entire “Green City” of Taipei unfolds beneath. You’re also surrounded by beautiful green mountains, one of which has the finest museum of Chinese art in the world – the National Palace Museum. Though Taiwan is known to be industrialized – there isn’t a smokestack in site.
Something else has happened to travel to Taiwan. And it happened within just the past two years. There are now nonstop direct, regularly scheduled flights between cities in Mainland China and Taiwan. For the first time in 60 years, Americans can get the total Chinese experience – Taiwan and China.
Now there’s the perfect “Golden Triangle” – Taiwan/ Beijing/Shanghai. The Forbidden City in Beijing is a must-see. The residence of the Ming and Qing Chinese emperors was also the center of government. The complex is so large you can spend weeks and not see everything.
Unless you also visit Taipei’s National Palace Museum, you definitely will not see the entire Imperial collection. Most of the most precious artifacts were removed from Beijing in 1949 and brought to Taiwan by Chiang Kai-shek. To fully see and appreciate all the art and architecture of the Forbidden City, you must visit Taipei.   more …
