2 million
Annual Visitors
700,000 objects (only 3,000 on display at any time)
Collection
2–4 hours
Recommended Visit
He Zhijian (1965) · Renovation 2007–2009
Architect
About National Palace Museum
The National Palace Museum is a national museum in Taipei, Taiwan. It has a permanent collection of nearly 700,000 pieces of ancient Chinese imperial artifacts and artworks, making it one of the largest of its type in the world.
The collection encompasses 8,000 years of history of Chinese art from the Neolithic age to the modern period. Most of the collection are high-quality pieces collected by China's emperors.
The National Palace Museum and the Palace Museum in the Forbidden City share the same roots, which were split in two as a result of the Chinese Civil War. The Republic of China government relocated the most prized pieces to Taiwan in 1948 and 1949.
Due to the size of the collection, only a small portion is exhibited at any one time, with displays rotated every three months to allow visitors to see different highlights across visits.
Masterworks & Must-See Highlights
The works that define National Palace Museum — and why they matter.
Jadeite Cabbage
Unknown Qing Dynasty craftsman · Late 19th century
Jadeite Cabbage Gallery (planned rotation)
A cabbage head carved from a single piece of jadeite — the green of the leaves and the white of the stalk achieved using the stone's natural colour variations. It attracts the longest queues of any exhibit in the museum.
Meat-Shaped Stone (Dongpo Pork)
Unknown craftsman · Qing Dynasty
Adjacent to Jadeite Cabbage Gallery
A piece of jasper so perfectly polished and stained that it is indistinguishable from braised pork belly. The ultimate exercise in trompe-l'oeil in stone.
Along the River During the Qingming Festival (Song Dynasty version)
Zhang Zeduan · 12th century CE
Painting and Calligraphy Gallery (rotation)
A 5.28-metre handscroll depicting life in the Song capital Bianjing. The original in Beijing is one of China's national treasures; the Palace Museum's version and its collection of Imperial paintings are among the finest in the world.
Collections & Highlights
Frequently Asked Questions
A small ask before you go
You've just explored one of humanity's greatest collections of beauty. Art has the power to move us, inspire us, and change how we see the world. But millions of people will never see beauty like this — not because the art isn't there, but because they can't see at all.
Preventable blindness, caused by conditions like cataracts and trachoma, affects people of all ages across the world's poorest communities. A small gift — for the cost of a museum ticket — can provide a simple surgery to restore someone's sight and transform their life.