Shi Lin (士琳) @ TAIPEI (台北）😋🍹🎉😴

 “Travel makes the world smaller.”

Welcome back again to my blog on Taipei part 3 : Shi Lin

Hope you enjoyed reading my blog on Wan Hua and Zhong Zheng.

ShiLin

This place was the home of Taiwanese Indigenous Peoples - Kimassauw Community until Han Chinese start to settle down here. During the late Qing era, there are many literary talents from this region who had passed the imperial examinations, so the local government changed named this place as "ShiLin(士林）" which means "congregation of scholars and talents." 

Let's kick start with the famous National Palace Museum followed by ShiLin Night market. 

The National Palace Museum (國立故宮博物院)

Although I have been in Taipei numerous times, but this is my first time to visit The National Palace Museum.

There are a few exhibitions halls featuring different exhibits and I took a lot of photos to share about this interesting place that I will collage parts of my collection to save some space.

Qing Ming Shang He Tu AKA Along The River of QingMing Festival

I am so fortunate that I can see this legendary handscrolled painting here. 

The original painter was Zhang ZeDuan who lived during the Song Dynasty, this painting had been copied many times throughout the centuries. The painting talks about the lives and activities involved with the people along the river in the ancient Beijing.

Qing Ming Shang He Tu AKA Along The River of QingMing Festival

I am so fortunate that I can see this legendary handscrolled painting here. 

The original painter was Zhang ZeDuan who lived during the Song Dynasty, this painting had been copied many times throughout the centuries. The painting talks about the lives and activities involved with the people along the river in the ancient Beijing.

From the right to left of the painting, it reveals scenes of the lifestyles of all levels of the society from rich to poor as well as activities in rural areas and the city. There are glimpses of ancient clothing and buildings. The painting is considered to be the most reowned work among all Chinese painting works and is also known as Mona Lisa of China,

Here is Taipei, it offers a replicated 3D digital version of this painting. I am glad to be here, getting closed to it and understand more about the people during the period.

This is the magnet version of the painting that I brought home with.

Prince Gong (恭亲王)

Birth name Aisin Gioro Yi Xin (爱新觉罗 亦新), the sixth son of Emperor Daoguang, the younger brother of Emperor XianFeng.

Here in displays are furnitures and accessories from his residence.

These antique treasures are all at least more than a century!

After all the preservation and conservation works, they still look so new and flawless. 

I remembered seeing some similar ones in those period drama shows. 

The main purpose to visit this museum is to take a good look of the legendary Jade Cabbage. Unfortunately, at the time of my visit, it was loaned to another museum in ChaiYi. So, I grabbed this photo in goggle. 

As per wiki, a piece of half green & half white Jade stone carved into the shape of a Chinese cabbage with insects camouflaged in the leaves. It was said that this Jade cabbage is part of the dowry of Consort Jin of Emperor GuangXu in 1889. Following the fall on Qing Empire in the Chinese Revolution in 1911, the Jade cabbage became part of the collection of the Palace Museum in the Forbidden City. It went on experienced the World War 2 and Chinese Civil War and was eventually relocated to Taiwan's National Palace Museum.

Nevertheless, I managed to get a real good look on another treasure here: The Meat Shape Stone

It looks exactly like a piece of braised pork belly. The layers of stone accumulated naturally with various shades over the years since it was carved in the Qing dynasty. The craftsman who carved the stone stained the skin, which resulted in a realistic looking piece of stone with multiple layers appearing like layers of fat and meat.

One more formal last photo of the museum. 

There are not much taxi waiting for passengers here so there is a customer service counter at the basement where taxis will be called for you. 

ShiLin Night Market

Which tourist did not visit this night market before? The most popular one in Taipei.

It is still as busy as ever, look out for these goodies we got to satisfy our stomachs. 

邱記10元炭烤

Located at the "start" of ShiLin, very near to the traffic lights if you are coming from Jian Tan station. 

There are so many varieties of BBQ skewers here. Barely start our food hunt, I decided to skip here while my man bought 2 sticks of chicken butts which made him so happy! 

At the end of our food hunt, we returned to take-away, since we were going to Jian Tan station.

Hometown BBQ Chicken (家鄉碳烤香雞排)

Coming to Taiwan, never leave without eating their big chicken chop. 

Hot, crispy and spicy big piece of chicken chop that usually do not have the extra service to "cut" the chunk as it is meant to bite. This is indeed very tasty and flavorful, and I will be back again.  

士林廟口老店阿亮麵線

The night was chilly, and we happened to pass by this stall.

Perfect food to warm our stomachs. The core business is oden and mian xian which is similar like Ah Zhong's in XMD.

The mian xian is very silky and the broth is good. The oden is very freshy and crunchy with their homemade gravy. 

墾丁炸鲜奶

Freshly fried, cool it down before taking the first bite! Crispy at the outside, fragrant vanilla in the inside.

高雄東山鴨頭

This is an old shop here and there are always queues for you! I have bought it many times as I am a duck wing lover.

This round, it tastes no longer like before. The brine became much sweeter, and the duck wing tasted hard. It is likely my last time to purchase.

忠誠號蚵仔煎

This is our last stop here; we are pretty full but still want to eat. 

The restaurant is very packed, glad that there is still a small table just nice for 2 pax.

We ordered oyster omelet and deep-fried prawn fritters. 

The oyster omelet here is Taiwan is not the same as what we usually have in Singapore. 

Here the dish is starchier and drip over an orange sauce. It is special in its own way, and we finished it in no time. 

As for the deep-fried prawn fritter, I think it tastes nice. 

Our food hunt end here and we have come to the end of this blog on Shilin, coming up next will be on Da An where the famous Zhong Xiao East Road is located.

While the blogs on DaTong, TamSui will be on their queues for publishments. 

We visited Europe recently like The Netherlands & Belgium recently : Amsterdam, The Hague , Rotterdam , Kinderdijk , Naarden ,Muiden , Haarlem , Nijmegan, Brussel, Bruges 

and Antwerp

Feel free, you are most welcome to browse through my other blogs to France, Japan, China, Thailand, Malaysia and cruises etc. I will be deeply blessed if you can like my facebook page:: followblueginger

Lastly, thanks for dropping by.

Wish you good luck.

Cheers