The Southern Branch of the National Palace Museum (NPMSB; ) is a

museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make these ...

in Taibao City,

Chiayi County Chiayi County (Mandarin pinyin: ''jiā yì xiàn''; Hokkien POJ: ''Ka-gī-koān'') is a county in southwestern Taiwan surrounding but not including Chiayi City. It is the sixth largest county in Taiwan. Name The former Chinese placename was ...

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

History

To improve the cultural equity between

Northern Taiwan The regions of Taiwan are based on the historical administrative divisions. However, most of the definitions are not precise. Division into two regions * Eastern and Western Taiwan: the Central Mountain Range separates Taiwan into east and west. :* ...

and

Southern Taiwan The regions of Taiwan are based on the historical administrative divisions. However, most of the definitions are not precise. Division into two regions * Eastern and Western Taiwan: the Central Mountain Range separates Taiwan into east and west. :* ...

, the

Executive Yuan The Executive Yuan () is the executive branch of the government of the Republic of China (Taiwan). Its leader is the Premier, who is appointed by the President of the Republic of China, and requires confirmation by the Legislative Yuan. ...

approved the construction of the southern branch of

National Palace Museum The National Palace Museum (; Pha̍k-fa-sṳ: Kwet-li̍p kù-kiung pok-vu̍t-yèn), is a museum in Taipei, Republic of China (Taiwan). It has a permanent collection of nearly 700,000 pieces of Chinese artifacts and artworks, many of which wer ...

on 31 December 2004 as the Asian Arts and Culture Museum. The museum main building groundbreaking ceremony was held on 6 February 2013 hosted by

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...

Ma Ying-jeou Ma Ying-jeou ( zh, 馬英九, born 13 July 1950) is a Hong Kong-born Taiwanese politician who served as president of the Republic of China from 2008 to 2016. Previously, he served as justice minister from 1993 to 1996 and mayor of Taipei from ...

and the

beam Beam may refer to: Streams of particles or energy *Light beam, or beam of light, a directional projection of light energy **Laser beam *Particle beam, a stream of charged or neutral particles **Charged particle beam, a spatially localized grou ...

-raising ceremony was held on 5 June 2014 hosted by

Vice President A vice president, also director in British English, is an officer in government or business who is below the president (chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vice president is on t ...

Wu Den-yih Wu may refer to: States and regions on modern China's territory *Wu (state) (; och, *, italic=yes, links=no), a kingdom during the Spring and Autumn Period 771–476 BCE ** Suzhou or Wu (), its eponymous capital ** Wu County (), a former county i ...

. The museum was opened for trial on 28 December 2015. In mid April 2016, the museum was closed due to reparation work of water leakage in its main hall building. The museum was then reopened on 23 August 2016.

Architecture

Southern Branch of the National Palace Museum zhimei bridge

The 70-hectare museum was constructed at a cost of NT$7.934 billion. It consists of the main building, landscape bridge and park view. The main contractor for the construction was Lee Ming Construction for the main building and Progressive Environment Inc. Co. for the park. The museum's main building spreads over an area of 20 hectares. The building's shape was designed to invoke the three classical brush forms of ink painting. It consists of the Moyun Hall and Feibai Hall. The three shapes of brush also represents three ancient Asian civilization, which are China, India and Persia. The main entrance to the building ground floor has an elevation of 11 meters. It is also a certified green building. The landscape bridge, named ''Zhimei Bridge'', spans across a lake for a length of . It is a single span steel arch bridge. It consists of 25 curved ribs with various lengths and angles. The museum park spans over an area of 50 hectares. It consists of the Waterscape Garden, Tropical Garden and Festival Garden. It also features a bird-viewing platform, memorial stone for the museum establishment, waterfront stage etc.

Exhibitions

The museum consists of permanent exhibition and temporary exhibition sections. It also includes the children's creative center.

Events

* Indian Festival of Light * Muslim Culture Day

Facilities

Opened on 21 December 2017, the museum opened a Muslim prayer room, the first of such opening in a Taiwanese museum.

Transportation

The museum is accessible by bus from

Chiayi Station Chiayi () is a railway station in Chiayi, Taiwan served by Taiwan Railways and Alishan Forest Railway. History The station was firstly constructed in 1896 and opened on 20 April 1902 with service on the West Coast line. The station was a s ...

Taiwan High Speed Rail Taiwan High Speed Rail (THSR) is the high-speed railway of Taiwan consisting of one line that runs approximately along the west coast, from the capital Taipei to the southern city of Kaohsiung. With construction and operations managed by a pri ...

References

External links

* {{authority control 2015 establishments in Taiwan Museums established in 2015 Museums in Chiayi County National museums of Taiwan