For conference participants interested in Taiwan's arts and culture, and Chinese historical treasures, a one-day tour is offered at a nominal fee (see the section for registration information):

National Palace Museum － Lunch － Juming Museum
Wednesday, August 28

The National Palace Museum houses the world's largest collection of priceless Chinese art treasures, one which spans China's nearly 5,000-year history. Most of the museum's 620,000 art objects were part of the Chinese imperial collection, which was started over 1,000 years ago in the early Sung dynasty.

The "Palace" in the National Palace Museum's name refers to the Forbidden City in Beijing, which was first built in the reign of the Ming dynasty emperor Chengzu (ruled 1403-1424). The Ming dynasty was followed by the Qing, and then in 1925, the 14th year of the Republic of China, the last Qing emperor Pu Yi left the Forbidden City, and the National Palace Museum was formally established. However, after only a few years China was again engulfed by external aggression and internal strife. To escape the fires of war, the museum's priceless collection began a journey which is one of the most extraordinary tales in the history of art. From Beijing it was sent south, then west, crossing and recrossing central and southern China over a distance of more than 10,000 kilometers before finally reaching Taiwan safely in 1949.

Thus the core of the National Palace Museum's collection is formed by the old collections of the Qing palace. But looking more closely, we can trace this tradition of palace collections back to the 11th century and the early Northern Sung dynasty. The late Northern Song emperor Huizong (r. 1101-1125) enlarged the collection to a substantial size. It continued to grow through the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties and finally reached its culmination through the efforts of the Qing emperor Qianlong (r. 1736-1795). Thus the collection's history reaches back over nearly a millennium.

Over these 1000 years of Chinese history, through many changes of dynasty, shifts in political power and changes of capital city, this imperial collection as it became richer and richer.

For more information about National Palace Museum, please visit: http://www.npm.gov.tw/

Ju Ming hails from the township of Tunghsiao in rural Miaoli County. After the age of 12, he left school to help his parents support their large family. From these humble beginnings, Ju advanced step by step toward an improbable destiny as a world-renowned sculptor. The Juming Museum, funded by Mr. Ju himself, is the largest outdoor sculpture park in Taiwan. Besides Mr. Ju's creative works, many international and internal artists' works are housed here. Located on the northern slope of the Yangmingshan Mountains and overlooking the Pacific coast, the Juming Museum's natural setting and spacious grounds would be worth a visit even if there weren't any sculpture to draw you there. So much the better that you can sit in the sun enjoying world-class art at the same time.

More information can be found at http://www.juming.org.tw/

*After visiting the National Palace Museum, we will have a buffet lunch at the Juming Museum.

Registration Deadline: August 15, 2002
To facilitate the organization of the tours, please register as soon as possible, if you are interested in these tours. The deadline is August 15, 2002.