The second fastest train of Taiwan.
The fastest train of Taiwan.
I had visited the National Museum of Natural Science a couple of times during school trips in my early teens, where there were many hand-on experiments but exhibitions were lacking. The museum has expanded and matured over the years. It now offered rich exhibitions on natural life and evolution, Chinese science and society, and earth and environment. It also had a planetarium and an IMAX theater. I had been to quite a few science museums around the world, and in my opinion, the National Museum of Natural Science could be regarded as a world class museum.
The National Museum of Natural Science had expanded over the years.
If memory served, these moving T-Rex were static displays when I last visited them.
The wooden structure of a temple’s roof hanged over the exhibition hall for Chinese spiritual life.
Delicate miniature models of old Chinese farming village.
Full scale models of Chinese pharmacy selling herb medicines.
Specimens of safari wildlife.
Displays introducing the life circle of stars
Hand-on experiments took the back seat at the museum now.
The green house with a modern glass structure.
Man-made rains kept falling at the rain forests inside the green house.
The museum started from this single building.
Leaving the National Museum of Natural Science, I took the high speed train to Kaoshiung to visit the National Museum of Science and Technology. This was my first time to the museum, which offered many hand-on experiments in introducing food, transportation, weaving, and machinery technologies. The museum did have rich exhibitions on the progress of Taiwan’s telecom and the history of Taiwan’s industries. This museum was not as good as the National Museum of Natural Science but it had a firm foundation and it could only get better.
Students in school trips flooded the museum.
Students took a ride in the earthquake experiencing house.
Students playing simple racing game in a real off-road vehicle.
The fighter jet simulator in the aerospace exhibition hall.
Projected narrator introducing the heavy machineries.
Old hand-crank telephones that required operators.
Evolution of Taiwan’s toll phones.
People used to gather in front of televisions to watch live national baseball games and cheer for the local teams at late night.
Taiwan’s computer industry had evolved from making clones to established brands.
Taiwan’s bicycle industry had also made its name in the world.
The water clocks of the two National Science Museums.
After visited the two museums, I caught another high speed train to go back to Taipei. Looking at the scenery of west Taiwan while checking my location on the smart phone, the time passed like fly.
Sunset over rice farms of west Taiwan.
