Dear IPSFers:
The places of participants for the post congress tour are now filled. We now announce that the registration of the PCT is closed. For the quality of the tour, we can only accept limited number of you. For those who were planning to join us, we suggest you can travel around Taiwan individually. If you have any questions regarding traveling in Taiwan, feel free to write to us. For those who have already registered for the post tour, be prepared for the wildest summer vacation in Taiwan!
See you all this summer! (For further questions, please mail to: info@ipsf2007.org
Best regards,
Katherine Huang
Post Congress Tour Coordinator
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| Taipei 101 |
Taipei 101 Tower, located in the center of Taipei, is the most outstanding landmark of this busy city. You can see the tower almost anywhere in Taipei if there is nothing blocking your view. The name, Taipei 101, is a result of its height.  The building consists of 101 floors, hence the name, Taipei 101. Being one of the tallest buildings, you can have the best view to enjoy the Taipei city scenery anytime of the day.
Taipei 101 holds the world record in three of the councils on tall buildings and urban habitat's height categories: tallest to the structural top, tallest to the roof, and highest occupied floor.
As the world's tallest building building, you can have a marvelous view when you enter the observatory in Taipei 101 tower. At 89F is an indoor observatory where you can find a high-power binocular to look at scenes in the city. There is also an outdoor observatory located on the 91F. From the 89th Floor, through a flight of stairs, you can reach the outdoor observatory! It offers a totally different viewing experience. The outdoor observatory is only open during certain occasions and if weather permitts. A ticket to 89F for an adult is NT$350. If your party has more than 20 people, you can purchase a group ticket which is NT$300 per person. As for the 91F outdoor observatory, you need to pay another NT$100 to go there.
 Sometimes when there is a festival, such as the New Year Countdown, there is a big celebration near the 101 Tower. A firework show occurs at the end of the countdown. It is the best way to enjoy the festive atmosphere at Taipei 101!
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| National Palace Museum (NPM) |
National Palace Museum is a 42-year-old Museum located in Taipei. In this recently remodeled museum, you can enjoy the arts of ancient Chinese. The museum is a great place for you to learn about Chinese history.
The National Palace Museum in Taipei is home to a collection of over 700,000 items. Assembling a collection of this size spanning seven millennia of Chinese history and pre-history was a mammoth task requiring the joint efforts of countless collectors over the centuries.
 Most of the collections in NPM come from Beijing's Forbidden City during the final years of the Chinese Civil War. Under the orders of Chiang Kai-shek, these precious treasures were escorted to Taiwan.
There are displays of many kinds of artifacts classified as painting, calligraphy, rare books, documents, ceramics, bronzes, jades and curios. In NPM, you can see all kinds of ancient things, and know the culture in ancient China - what it had been, and what it had changed to along history.
Recent Special display theme
Lasting Impressions: Seals from the Museum Collection
 In China's past, there were many uses with seals much like we do today. A wide variety of materials were used to make seals. You can see the many kinds of seal in NPM which include more than 1,650 bronze seals and almost 250 stone and jade seals collected. So if you are interested in these ancient seal, you should definitely pay a visit to NPM.
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| The wooden sculpture of Sanyi |
 Speaking of the art of wood sculpture in Taiwan, the scenic mountain town, Sanyi, would come in most Taiwanese's mind without a doubt. In fact, this small town was not famous for its wood carving art since ancient time. It didn't earn its fame of 'city of carving art' until the later period of Japanese rule. It could be traced back to 1918, when the resident of Sanyi, Wu Bao-Ching, picked some dead wood home from the forest nearby. He planned to make them into a piece of furniture? in the beginning until unexpectedly, Japanese officials passing by his house found the wood, and thought of them as a piece of amazing work of art. Afterward, Wu Bao-Ching's son, Wu Lo-Song, who is gifted in arts, started learning the sculpting techniques from the Japanese. After finishing his learning, Wu Lo-Song made good use of the abundant forest resources of Sanyi, and started up his business in wood sculpture. (fig.1)
From then on, Sanyi developed its carving technique day by day, and began to gain its fame in exquisite wood sculpture among the whole island. It not only attracted numbers of artists from outside to town to move in and establish their own studios, but also received attention from the government. Nowadays, we not only have a special festival called' wood carving festival' to show the arts of wood sculpture in Sanyi, but also have a museum, Miaoli Wood Sculpture Museum, (fig.2 ) which exhibit carving artworks from religious characters, depiction of landscape and scenery to lively animals. So, next time if you pass by the beautiful mountain town, Sanyi, don't forget to stop by and take a look at the outstanding wooden sculptures which make all Taiwanese proud.
The appearances of the Miaoli Wood Sculpture Museum
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