Taipei 101
The year 2004 saw a new claimant to the title of world's tallest building, the 1,670-ft.Taipei 101--named for the number of its floors. The Taipei 101 combines the slimness of a needle with the layered look of serrations. It aspires to be very 21st century, with its sleek, curtain-walled height, while also paying homage to traditional Chinese culture through its exterior and interior features observing feng shui. Above all, though, it is intended as a triumphant statement of Taiwan's towering ambitions.

http://www.taipei-101.com.tw/en/Corp/index_Corp.asp

Palace Museum
Holding one of the largest collections of Chinese artifacts and artwork in the world, the National Palace Museum in Taipei reopened on Christmas Day 2006 after an extensive renovation project. The once dust-covered depository of ancient treasures now transformed into a bright, spacious modern museum replete with contemporary design inspired by the artwork from its collections. In addition to the artifacts ranging from the Neolithic age to the late Ching Dynasty, the museum caters to the visiting guests with multi-media exhibitions before visitors embark on their tours.

http://www.npm.gov.tw/en/home.htm

Yangmingshan National Park
Close to Taipei City and accessible via mass transit, the Yangmingshan National Park is renowned for its wealth of unusual volcanic features and topography. Because of the volcanic activity and winter monsoon, the park boasts not only subtropical rain forests, temperate evergreen broad-leaved forests, but also alpine plants that grow at a height of 2500 meters. A half day trip to this national park would literally make your day.

http://www.ymsnp.gov.tw/HTML/ENG/INDEX.ASP

Taroko Gorge
It's only a 50-minute flight from Taipei to Hwa-len, the east main urban center. Like many coastal resorts, Hwa-len offers a variety of oceanic diversions (boating, fishing, surfing and snorkeling). Stay at one of several homey B&Bs dotting the low hills behind Hwa-len, and you can gaze out at water that doesn't strike land till Hawaii. Take a couple of days to wind your way back to Taipei on the new coastal road---not as grand as California's Pacific Coast Highway, but equally romantic. En route, be sure to stop at Taroko Gorge---a beautiful landscape of marble cliffs, burbling streams and cobalt blue skies. In short, the east coast is everything you don't expect Taiwan to be: clean, green, and salted by the briny whiff of the sea. Go breathe it in.

http://www.taroko.gov.tw/

National Center for Traditional Arts

The word ‘tradition’ expresses the idea of passing on history and culture to future generations, whilst ‘art’ is a creative result of our daily experiences and is a product of beauty. The inspiration for the creation of traditional art usually originated from the daily activities of people and traditional arts represent a specific way of thinking, different beliefs, cultures and religions that are local to a certain place.
Traditional arts are rooted in people’s lives and are a form of beauty derived from the art of living. According to our ancestors, the origin of our culture was divided into two categories. One was performing arts such as music, folk songs, dance, acrobats, story-telling, theatre, puppet theatre and so on. The second category was art concerned with design. This category placed an emphasis on traditional handcrafts such as sculpture, weaving, painting, collage-making, ceramics and the gold-silversmith trade. These were considered the most developed and appreciated forms of traditional arts.   Traditional performing arts evolved out of the leisure activities and the beliefs and practices of people in certain areas. Thepopularity of traditional performing arts is timeless. Traditional performing arts mimic the joy, anger, sorrow and happiness of life as well
as the natural cycle of life and death. These aspects of life are told through story telling, singing, dancing, and drama. Much of the humor and sarcasm of life as well as human wisdom are embodied in these performances. Traditional performing arts express human emotion as well as all the basic conditions of life. The concept of art being life is clearly evident in this tradition.
Traditional handcrafts can either be functional or decorative. Some handcrafts are both functional and decorative whilst others emphasize one aspect over the other. In any case, the aesthetic values and human spirituality traditional handcrafts represent are now harder to obtain in today’s industrialized society. Local handcrafts in Taiwan were made according to our daily needs, our climate, our natural environment, culture, history and religion. Traditional handcrafts represent generations of wisdom and creativity and represent the beauty of the harmony between man and nature.
Traditional arts change over time. Traditional arts are rooted in life and the concepts of life, cultural distinctiveness and ways of evaluating beauty they express can become a new source of creativity and interest for our modern society. Traditional arts can also be seen as a fundamental aspect of our culture; one that is extremely valuable and greatly significant.

http://www.ncfta.gov.tw/ncfta_eh/main/index.aspx

TAIWAN:

Taiwan :::Touch Your Heart:::

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