Friday morning, my third aunt and uncle, grandma, and myself head out to the Chimei Museum, about 30 minutes south of Tainan. The museum is private, and was established by Wen-Long Shi, co-founder of Chimei Corporation, a plastics and tech company, known for its LCD screens. Wen-Long Shi was able to set up a Culture Foundation to support the arts, and opened his museum to the public with free admission, while maintaining quite a large collection of artwork, antiques, fossils, natural science exhibits, and a personal passion - musical instruments. His collection also includes quite a few Stradivarius violins (he's a violinist himself) - but for security reasons, these are kept in a vault in a separate location. Nevertheless, there was plenty to see, and lots to learn from.
Writing these posts a considerable amount of time after the trip due to a backlog of posts, I thankfully have a travel habit of keeping a lot of pamphlets and maps, and other simple souvenirs, wherever I go - whether it's a map of Taroko National Park, the movie ticket stub from Inception at Dream Mall, a church program, or the museum guide at the Chimei Museum. Along with photos and memories, they provide plenty of detail and reminders to what I did that day (there's a collection of 100+ items from these 40 days).
Here's a picture of the Museum Guide, and below, you can see a description of Wen Long Shi's collection of Strads. He has also founded the Chimei Philharmonic Orchestra, and has lent his collection of musical instruments to international performers (including Yo-Yo Ma).
We arrived a few minutes before opening times, and took some photos outside, of some Michaelangelo-inspired statues.
At 10, the doors were opened, and we were allowed to go in (after we checked in with our reservations). Unfortunately, photography was not allowed in the museum, so I can't show you any of the beautiful artwork and displays, but we had a wonderful time. The 1st floor had a movie room that was showing an introduction to the company, museum, and charitable efforts in the arts, while floors five to eight featured the bulk of the exhibits.
Alongside the chronologically galleries of paintings and sculptures on the fifth floor, there were plenty of interactive, touch screens that provided more information about the museum's exhibits (manufactured by Chimei Corp. of course!). In enjoyed the sixth floor, which had walls lined with musical instruments, and a presentation featuring the history of self playing instruments, including pipe systems, player pianos, and even devices that mimicked an entire of ensemble of instruments.
The seventh and eight floors featured natural sciences, with exhibits centered around geology and ecology, with several displays of animal habitats around the world (with, generally, life-like animals). A few hours later, we had seen a good part of the displays, while the museum halls were beginning to fill up with other visitors and kids (perhaps from camps or schools), and we headed off for lunch.
We stopped at a Japanese restaurant, Fu Shan - I'd eaten there three and a half years ago with family. There were several small dishes for each course...
... and in no time, the table was looking pretty full.
And there was also soup served in a teapot!
I was dropped back at my second aunt's home. Later that day, I had another visit with the doctor to keep me as healthy as possible in my final days in Taiwan. On the way home, we stopped at a shop and bought some warm almond milk, and went home for another great homemade dinner. =)
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