taiwan resources

I enjoyed this site and plan on sharing the video they have on it with my 6th Grade Ancient Civ Students as an Intro to our writing Chinese characters project. The video opens with chinese characters and is visually appealing as it shows scenes from Taiwan. On another subject here are some books I have been reading that I downloaded from Amazon onto my Kindle: 'China Survival Guide: How to Avoid Travel Troubles and Mortifying Mishaps' by Larry Herzberg and Qin Herberg (fun read with a good chapter on manners and ettiquette. 'Dragon Rising: An Inside Look at China Today' by Jasper Becker is well written. As for learning some Mandrin, I chose 'The Most Basic Chinese; All You need to Know to Get By' by James McGlasson. I also purchased Lonely Planets Guides for China called 'Discover China' (I got the actual books because of the pull out maps) and Tawain Travel Guide (Lonely Planet)

The intro to the exhibit definitely makes me want to go. The slides of the development of Chinese characters and the Hundred Horses were fascinating. I also visited the website for Taiwan Academy, which is packed with information. I spent some time looking at the overview, the book shelf, and 101 of Taiwan's baseball, which was very cool! When I was in Kansas City recently, I went to the Negro Leagues' Baseball Museum, which lit a fire for researching the beginnings of the sport. How neat to find an article on baseball on this website. I'm thinking my Dodger gifts may be well appreciated in Taiwan!

I did manage to visit the website for the National Palace Museum and it seems they have some interesting exhibits that will be there during our visit. Among others, there will be an exhibit called Royal Style: Qing Dynasty and Western Court Jewelry. The theme of this exhibit compares jewelry of the Qing court with that of Western nobility. It should be interesting. I'd also like to spend some time checking out Arts from the Ch'ing Imperial Collection, which obviously are artifacts from the Ch'ing imperial court, and the Splendors of Ch'ing Furniture, which showcases furniture made from a variety of woods and sporting rich, deep colors. No matter how much time we spend here, I know it won't be enough. But I'm looking forward to it.