Odd Taiwan museums and sites

Travel Taiwan Travel
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After reading this article about the new Barbie Museum in Taishan where the Mattel Barbie factory once was, I decided to start a collection of eclectic sites thread. Perhaps this will be the thread for things to do if you have seen it all in Taiwan already. There must be more places like this around Taiwan off or on the beaten paths.

I am reminded of the National Lampoon movie Vacation where Chevy Chase has his family stop to see the world’s largest close pin or was it the largest ball of thread, or was that a scene from my childhood? Anyway, I think you know what kind of sites I am asking about.


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There was a segment on Barbie Museum on the Daily Show on the 2004-09-29 episode.

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Just past Yehliu on the North Coast is the Taipower Second Nuclear Power Planet Visitor Centre. The first floor features a scaled cutaway model of a nuclear power reactor. You can listen to a 5-minute presentation in English or Chinese on how a reactor works to generate power. There are also a number of cool interactive games and displays.

Also on the north coast is the 18 Lords Temple. Probably one of the ugliest temples in Taiwan but the only one that features a dog god. When you enter old women sell you a little amulet which you use to wipe the dog’s nose, head and belly before bowing three times to complete the blessing. Good boy! Good boy!

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Mucha Man wrote: [quote]Also on the north coast is the 18 Lords Temple. Probably one of the ugliest temples in Taiwan but the only one that features a dog god.[/quote]
It’s very unusual for Chinese to show reverence for an animal; well, other than as a something to be be served up on a plate. The temple is pretty well-known throughout Taiwan because of The CURSE of the DOG. :astonished: I’ve had a few locals tell me that the workers involved with trying to move the temple mysteriously fell ill or died.

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I have heard of hair of the dog, but curse of the dog sounds frightening

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[quote=“almas john”]

It’s very unusual for Chinese to show reverence for an animal;[/quote]

Well, as I said, he was a very very good boy.

Here’s another bizarre attraction in Taiwan. The Wenchang Temple in Jiji. Toppled during the 921 earthquake it is more popular now than when it was standing.

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North of Taitung there is a place called “water flows uphill” where the water appears to flow uphill. I can’t remember the exact location but there is a sign on the coastal road heading north from Taitung.

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Now Taiwan has a cake museum. Take that barbie.

Wait a second. Did he say coffee museum?

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[quote=“Mucha (Muzha) Man”]Now Taiwan has a cake museum. Take that barbie.[/quote]Until Taiwan can produce fruit cake like my Mum’s, I won’t take seriously anything they have to say on the subject. (Though that onion cake stuff is definitely a unique take on the whole concept.)

[quote=“Mucha (Muzha) Man”]Wait a second. Did he say coffee museum?[/quote]That will be down at Gukeng. I think I read somewhere it’s a private museum, run by the family who started growing coffee there.

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Not quite on the top of my list… Taipower also run tours of the nuclear waste dump in Orchid Island.

There’s also the crystal display/showroom along Bade Rd (just past Keelung Rd) where you can have your aura photographed (using a mass-spectrometer) and then your personality assessed on the basis of your aura. I went in with my girlfriend and had a bit of a laugh. Bought a nice crystal bracelet, too.

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A few new ones. Down the Blue line is the Nougat Museum. In Daxi there is a Crab Museum. Tainan County has the Salt Museum and salt mountains in Cigu.

And, craziest of them all: the Dried Bonito Museum in Taitung. :laughing:

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[quote=“Muzha Man”]A few new ones. Down the Blue line is the Nougat Museum. In Daxi there is a Crab Museum. Tainan County has the Salt Museum and salt mountains in Cigu.

And, craziest of them all: the Dried Bonito Museum in Taidong. :laughing:[/quote]

Should I regret not stopping by during CNY?

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[quote=“jdsmith”][quote=“Muzha Man”]A few new ones. Down the Blue line is the Nougat Museum. In Daxi there is a Crab Museum. Tainan County has the Salt Museum and salt mountains in Cigu.

And, craziest of them all: the Dried Bonito Museum in Taidong. :laughing:[/quote]

Should I regret not stopping by during CNY?[/quote]

Er, well, I think if you did you would still be trying to wash the smell out of your clothing.

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Chimei Corporation has an excellent museum in Tainan county also. 5 floors of art and relics from around the world. Mostly European, but also other continents and countries.

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It’s about time they open a ‘green ball nose pickings’ museum …

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The Taichung Art Museum has an exhibition on display now of works borrowed from that museum.

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The Taichung Art Museum has an exhibition on display now of works borrowed from that museum.[/quote]
Its a good museum. Works collected by the Chimei owner and his family. He has a couple of active buyers in Europe.

I’ve been 3 times and look forward to going again. Always something new. And always something old that can be seen in a new light.

Personally I enjoy the section on weaponry through the ages.
They have an couple of pieces of sword-guns that I had only seen in reference books. And an excellent edged weapon collection.

But that is only a very small part of the museum.

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The Taichung Art Museum has an exhibition on display now of works borrowed from that museum.[/quote]
Its a good museum. Works collected by the Chimei owner and his family. He has a couple of active buyers in Europe.

I’ve been 3 times and look forward to going again. Always something new. And always something old that can be seen in a new light.

Personally I enjoy the section on weaponry through the ages.
They have an couple of pieces of sword-guns that I had only seen in reference books. And an excellent edged weapon collection.

But that is only a very small part of the museum.[/quote]

Hmm, they sound much more interesting than the exhibition at Taichung which is mostly 2nd-tier European oil paintings.

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Tainan Exploding Whale Museum

When tired of our temples and coffin bread (as if!) spend a little time with our whale that exploded with nasty consequences for those scootering nearby.

This from wikipedia

Tainan, Taiwan

A whale explosion occurred on January 26, 2004, in Tainan City, Taiwan. In this incident, a buildup of gas inside a decomposing sperm whale, measuring 17 m (55 ft 9 in) long and weighing 50 tons, caused it to burst. The older bull whale had died after becoming beached on the southwestern coast of Taiwan, and it had taken more than 13 hours, three large cranes, and 50 workers to shift the beached sperm whale onto the back of a truck.

While the whale was being moved, the paper’s website Taiwan News, eTaiwanNews.com, reported that “a large crowd of more than 600 local Yunlin residents and curiosity seekers, along with vendors selling snack food and hot drinks, braved the cold temperature and chilly wind to watch workmen try to haul away the dead marine leviathan”.[11] Professor Wang Chien-ping had ordered the whale be moved to the Sutsao Wild Life Reservation Area after he had been refused permission to perform a post-mortem at the National Cheng Kung University in Tainan. The whale was being transported on the back of a truck through the center of Tainan from the university laboratory to the preserve when the explosion occurred. Although the explosion was spectacular, it did not stop researchers from performing a necropsy on the animal.

The explosion was reported to have splattered blood and whale entrails over surrounding shop-fronts, bystanders, and cars. BBC News Online interviewed an unnamed Taiwanese local who said, “What a stinking mess. This blood and other stuff that blew out on the road is disgusting, and the smell is really awful.”[12]

Over the course of about one year, Professor Wang completed a bone display from the remains of the whale’s rotting dead body. The assembled specimen and some preserved organs and tissues have been on display in the Taijiang Cetacean Museum (zh:台江鯨豚館) since April 8, 2005.

And from the BBC news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3437455.stm

Its skeleton (and formaldehyde lubricated penis) resides in a museum behind a small ‘salt village’, near the Ta-chung temple just north of Anping.

barking-deer.com/ Adventures in rural southernTaiwan.

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Taiwan Paper Museum, Taipei. Huh?

Rare shellfish aquarium, Su’ao. Unusual facade and owner.