The world’s biggest collection of Chinese cultural objects isn’t in China

Seven wonders within the National Palace Museum, Taipei, Taiwan

The world’s biggest collection of Chinese cultural objects spans a wide range of art forms and thousands of years of history, and every exhibit is a wonder. See npm.gov.tw

1 Get lost in the landscapes

There’s much to admire in the museum’s painting collection, with many in long-scroll form.Credit: Alamy

Ready for a refreshing change from swooning saints and gloomy portraiture? Delicate Chinese landscape paintings favour impressionistic, dreamlike scenery in which clouds, rivers and waterfalls are often merely suggested by unpainted spaces. There’s much to admire in the museum’s painting collection but, in particular, seek out Qian Gu’s Visual Travelogue of a Journey Through the Waterways, a series of 32 elegant paintings depicting delicate orchids, bamboo, mountains, humpbacked bridges and villages with grey-tiled houses. Wonderful.

2 Immerse yourself in minimalism

In Chinese art, spontaneous brushstrokes are never reworked since, in the Daoist tradition, striving for artistic perfection only brings frustration. But in Picking Lotuses, the brushstrokes of Tang Yin (1470-1523) are so masterful that his minimalist, lightest-of-ink wash could hardly be bettered. Mist shimmers over a lotus pond on which ladies boat. Willow branches trail. Some lotus leaves are lush, others on the edge of decay. Simple but magnificent.

3 Take time to study the detail

The ivory pagoda.Credit: Alamy

Head to Gallery 106 to inspect a masterpiece that, like many others, you might otherwise rush past, thus missing out on the incredible mastery revealed by up-close inspection. Look for the moveable, hollow ivory balls nestled one inside the other and each carved with minute reliefs of Chinese figures, landscapes and pavilions. The ornament dates only from the 19th century, but the intricacy of the ivory carving is astounding – indeed, you’d swear impossible, if not for the evidence of your eyes.

4 Be wowed… by a cabbage

The treasured jadeite cabbage.Credit: Adobe Stock

Get to Gallery 302 on the third floor first thing if you want to avoid the crowds that gather to see a public favourite, considered one of the great treasures of Chinese civilisation: a carving in jadeite of a Chinese cabbage in miniature. The Qing Dynasty carving has a marvellous luminosity, uses the rock’s natural colour changes from white to green to great effect, and features two carved insects (a locust and katydid) amid the leaves.

5 Admire the ancient bronzes

A bronze from the 15th century.Credit: Alamy

It’s easy to overlook the bronzes in Gallery 305 given their lack of colour and seemingly lumpen appearance. But don’t sail on by: some items date from as far back as the Shang Dynasty in the 12th century BC. One such magnificent example is a cauldron with a mottled green patina, very early script in its interior, and rim and legs patterned with animal and floral motifs. Hard to believe it’s more than 3000 years old.

6 Pick your way through the porcelain

Millennia of porcelain on display – some bowls are so delicate as to be translucent.Credit: Adobe Stock

Everyone will have their favourites in the porcelain gallery, where millennia of styles are showcased, and many items are imperial quality. Some bowls are so delicate as to be translucent, and some glazes (such as the blue-green glazes on Northern Song porcelain from the 11th century) have superb lustre. Seek out the porcelain pillow in the shape of a sleeping child in Gallery 205, which has an ethereal white glaze and an air of marvellous tranquillity.

7 Get shopping

The National Palace Museum has the largest collection of Chinese art and excellent shops.Credit: Adobe Stock

The museum has excellent shops, even if you only want to take home a reproduction of a scroll painting on a coaster, fridge magnet, cosmetic bag or mug. Mostly, though, you’ll find quality reproductions of porcelains and paintings (and even the Jadeite Cabbage) rather than kitsch. Some cost thousands of dollars, but you get what you pay for. Particularly lovely – and suitably sized for your suitcase – are the glazed tea bowls, and scrolls that can be rolled up into a cardboard tube.