Taiwan’s National Palace Museum (see official site) is the largest repository of Chinese artifacts and artworks in the world, with its main branch in Taipei.
In late 2015, a new Southern Branch of the National Palace Museum was opened in Chiayi, with the goal of balancing the cultural assets between northern and southern Taiwan.
The Southern Branch is a gorgeous, modern building on expansive grounds not far from Chiayi HSR station. It’s stunning collections (my personal favorites are the permanent tea and Buddha exhibits) are well worth the small detour. In my opinion, it’s even better than the Northern Branch.
In this article, I’ll cover everything you need to know for planning a visit to this extremely worthwhile museum. Also read about Chimei Museum, which is nearby in Tainan but offers a completely different experience.
Southern Branch of NPM Quick Tips
- Museum opening times: 9-5 daily, closed Mondays
- Museum grounds: 5AM to midnight, free to visit, water and light shows from 6 to 9 PM in summer
- Also included on: this Sun Moon Lake and Alishan 3-day tour
- Free museum days: Jan 1, Lantern Festival (Mar 3, 2026, Feb 21, 2027), International Museum Day (May 18), World Tourism Day (Sept 27), Double Ten Day (October 10)
- English guided tour: Free, 10:30 and 2:30, call +886-5-362-0777 (05-362-0777 inside Taiwan) to reserve
- Getting there: Taxi or bus from Chiayi HSR station (10 min) or Chiayi city center (30-45 min)
- Exhibits: Children’s Creative Center (free entry), Chinese Treasures, Imprints of Buddhas, Asian Textiles, Jade Artifacts, Gold Jewelry, Tea Culture in East Asia, Brush and Ink, Digital Media, and more
- Visiting time: 2-4 hours, depending on your speed of visiting
- Photography: Mostly permitted inside (with no flash), except a few specific pieces.
- More info: See this map of the grounds, layout of floors, list of current exhibits, audio guide, and accessible guide.
History and Architecture of Southern Branch of NPM
The National Palace Museum (國立故宮博物院, or 故宮 / gugong for short) was originally founded in the Forbidden City in Beijing, China in 1925.
In order to protect the collection of artifacts from the invading Japanese in the 1930s, the Nationalist Chinese government moved them to Shanghai then Nanjing.
When the Nationalists lost the Chinese Civil War to the Communists in 1949, they fled to Taiwan and brought the artifacts with them. The artifacts were first stored and eventually displayed at a facility in Taichung.
In 1965, the ROC government opened the National Palace Museum in Shilin district of Taipei, at the base of Yangming Mountain and not far from today’s Shilin Night Market, to house and display the artifacts.
The museum maintains a permanent collection of over 700,000 objects, a small fraction of which are on display at any given time.
In 2004, the government approved a project to build a second branch of the National Palace Museum in Taibao city (where Chiayi HSR station is also located), in Chiayi county of Southern Taiwan.
In 2013, President Ma Ying-jeou hosted the groundbreaking ceremony. On December 28, 2015, the museum official opened to the public.
The Southern Branch of the National Palace Museum sits on expansive (20 hectare) grounds with two artificial lakes.
The building is earthquake resistant, flood resistance (although the roof did spring a leak that caused it to close for a few months in 2016), and eco-friendly.
Fun fact: Taipei 101 is the world’s tallest green-certifed building.
Unlike the Northern Branch, which is built in the classical Chinese style, the Southern Branch is modern in design.
Viewed from above, the building design invokes three Chinese brush strokes: nongmo (thick ink), feibai (dry brush) and xuanran (ink wash).
According to the official museum website, “Together the three strokes transform into a streamlined building where void and solid masses meet and interweave.”
Getting There
The easiest way to reach Southern Branch of the National Palace Museum is from Chiayi HSR station or from Chiayi Station (the regular train station) in the city center.
By Car
Because it is not in a major city, it is very easy to drive to the museum. See my guide to renting a car and driving in Taiwan and use GoogleMaps directions to get there.
There are large parking lots here on the north side and here on the south side of the museum grounds. Park and visit the museum first.
On the way out, first walk to one of the payment machines in the parking lot, enter your license plate number, and pay (I believe I paid TWD 50).
When you drive out the exit, the camera will see your license plate and the barrier stick will go up.
Budget 15 minutes to walk from parking lot to museum entrance.
By Taxi or Private Driver
There’s always a line of taxis at exit 3 of Chiayi HSR station. The 10-minute ride will cost around TWD 175. The taxi will likely drop you off here.
If you’d like to visit other places on the same day with a private driver, book one here or see my list of recommended drivers.
Public Transportation
It’s easy to reach the museum by bus. First, see my HSR guide for taking the HSR to Chiayi.
From Chiayi HSR station (here), go to exit 2 and take the HSR Shuttle (7212) for 10 minutes (direction NPM Southern Branch, NOT direction Chiayi city). It comes about once per hour. You’ll get dropped here at the main door.
The bus is free if you show any HSR ticket for that day (could be from earlier in the day or later). If you have no HSR ticket, swipe EasyCard.
There are a few other buses that will get you to the southern parking lot of the museum, from where its a 15-minute walk to the museum entrance. Use GoogleMaps directions for the times.
From Chiayi Station (here) in the Chiayi city center, first see my guide for taking the regular train to Chiayi station.
The same shuttle bus (7212, also free with HSR ticket) departs from here at the back side of the station.
If you’re on the front side of the station (where most hotels and the bus stop to Alishan are found), tell the station guard you just want to cross through to the other side and they will let you through.
Ride the bus for 45 minutes to the final stop, NPM Southern Branch, which will be one stop after Chiayi HSR station. You can see the departure times here – scroll down, select 7212, and “To THSR Chiayi Station”.
There are a few other bus options from the city – just use GoogleMaps directions.
My Experience Visiting Southern Branch of NPM
Now I’ll cover my experience driving to and visiting Southern Branch of the National Palace Museum, including the exhibits on each floor.
Arrival and Parking
For my visit, I drove a rental car there from Sun Moon Lake. After the museum, I would also squeeze in Ten Drum Village and Chimei Museum (both in Tainan, just south of Chiayi) into one very busy day.
Arriving at the museum, I parked at the northern parking lot, which still had tons of empty spaces on my Saturday late morning visit. As I drove in, a guard instructed me on where to park.
From the parking area, there’s a free shuttle to the museum entrance, but I didn’t see it when I arrive and was happy to just walk (15 minutes).
The Museum Grounds
The museum sits on expansive grounds with two artificial lakes, walking paths, and many outdoor sculptures and artworks.
If you park at the southern parking lot, you will cross the beautiful Zhimei Bridge (至美橋) over Zhishan Lake (至善湖).
This 142-meter steel arts bridge hovers just above the water. At night it is lit up, and Zhishan lake is the location of the nightly water and light shows in summer.
Parking at the northern parking lot, I instead got to walk through a cool cement tunnel bridge, called Lanyue Bridge (覽月橋) over Zhide Lake (至德湖), which has various openings for looking out.
The tunnel brought me to the northern tip of the museum building. Before going in the eastern entrance, I took a stroll part way around Zhide Lake to take some photos of the museum.
I also saw some children’s sand pits, slides, and several outdoor artworks.
After my museum visit, which would end around the southern tip of the building, I would go out and see Zhishan Lake and Zhimei Bridge before walking back to my car.
If you come by taxi or bus, you’ll get dropped off at the western entrance, so you’ll need to walk through (or around) the museum building to see the lakes, paths, and artworks on the northern, eastern, and southern sides.
First Floor Lobby and Galleries
There are entrances to the first-floor lobby on the western, eastern, and southern sides of the museum building.
For a typical visit, you enter on the first floor, take the stairs or elevator to the second-floor ticket area, then start your museum visit on the 3rd floor, and work your way back down.
The lobby is a public area with the following facilities. See the layout of all three floors here.
Children’s Creative Center
The large children’s center on the first floor is free to the general public. It includes a variety of interactive, hands-on, and educational displays.
There are also some traditional outfits that kids can try on.
See other kid-friendly places across Taiwan here.
Special Exhibit (101)
At the far southern end of the building, there’s a Special Exhibit room with rotating exhibit. When I visited, there was a combined exhibit of Taiwanese and French artworks. As I write this, it is “The Beauty of the Floating World in Edo”.
Due to the location, it makes sense to visit this at the end of your visit (after the 3rd and 2nd floors). The stairs will bring you right down to it on your way out.
Click here to see all the current temporary exhibits and which room they will be in.
Chiayi Exhibit (102)
Room 102, which is right next to 101, is a free public room called A Moving History of People and Place in Chiayi.
This room is very small and the main feature is a lit-up 3D map of Chiayi’s landscape, including Yushan (Taiwan’s tallest mountain). Save this for the end of your visit, too. There isn’t much to it.
Gift Shop
Just like its northern counterpart, the Southern Branch of National Palace Museum Gift Shop has a wide selection of souvenirs and Taiwan-themed items.
This is an especially good spot for traditional souvenirs like Chinese fans, paintings, paintbrushes, vases, knives, scrolls, books, calendars, and replicas of famous artifacts like the Jade Cabbage.
Browse the full list of products and my guide to the best souvenirs in Taiwan.
On my way out, I grabbed a National Palace Museum-branded beer, made by TTL (the makers of Taiwan Beer), for the walk back to my car. It was honey flavored.
Other Facilities
The ground floor also has the following:
- Post office, luggage lockers, phone charging stations
- Mini supermarket: selection of Carrefour products, take-away snacks like steamed buns and lunchboxes) and Matcha Prince (matcha ice cream desserts)
- Ye Ye Guowu: Hot pot restaurant with cat robot, see here
- Cafe with public seating and 7-Eleven vending machine
Third Floor Galleries
To enter the main galleries, go up the stairs (or take the elevator) to the second-floor ticketing area.
If you already purchased your ticket on Klook like I did, you can skip the ticket lines and proceed directly up the cute staircase to the third floor galleries to start your visit.
Orientation Galley (301)
The first room when I reached the third floor was an Orientation Gallery. The room introduces visitors to the Southern Branch of National Palace Museum visiting experience.
The main feature in the room is a large, rounded wall onto which moving images are projected. Kids should especially enjoy this.
Our Beloved Treasures (302)
The next room hosts rotating exhibits focusing on traditional Chinese/Taiwanese culture.
When I visited, the exhibit here was “Tracing the Daoist Immortal Lu Dongbin”, but at the time I’m writing this, that one has ended and hasn’t been replaced by anything new yet.
Check here for all current exhibits and their dates.
Imprints of Buddhas (303)
This permanent exhibit is probably my favorite one in the museum. It features Buddhist statues and artworks from across Asia.
The exhibit is arranged into five areas: birth, wisdom, compassion, scriptures, and esoteric Buddhism.
I was especially impressed by the stupa railing with goddesses from India (at the gallery’s entrance) and the nine-level stupa from Shanxi province in China.
If you’re interested in religion, you may also enjoy the Museum of World Religions in New Taipei City.
Asian Textiles (304)
This room features rotating exhibits on textiles in Asia. When I visited, the exhibit was called “The Fabric of Life: Asian Textiles from the National Palace Museum Collection”.
The gallery focuses on textiles and dying techniques, includes ones from Taiwan, Japan, Turkey, Indonesia, and India.
Besides actual fabrics, the gallery also has some cool digital displays of moving fabric patterns and interactive mirrors where you can digitally dress yourself in different garments.
That exhibit is running until early November 2025, after which it should be replaced by something different.
Second Floor Galleries
Outside the textiles exhibit, there are stairs and elevators down to the second floor.
Jade Artifacts and Gold Jewelry Room (201)
Here you’ll find more rotating galleries with artifacts related to jade and gold.
When I visited, there were two exhibits in here: “Treasures in the Palace of Heavenly Purity – Rediscovering Jades from the Inner Court of the Forbidden City” (201B) and “Refined Radiance :Treasures of Qing Dynasty Jewelry” (201A).
Both of these are running until August 2026.
Note that the famous Jade Cabbage and Meat Shaped Stone, the two most famous artifacts in the National Palace Museum’s collection, are usually on display at the Northern Branch in Taipei, but sometimes they are loaned to the Southern Branch.
Tea Culture in East Asia (202)
This was my second favorite gallery at the Southern Branch. It focuses on tea culture in Taiwan and East Asia, include stunning ceramics and equipment for tea brewing and enjoyment.
I’m a big fan of Taiwanese teas – see my guide to tea in Taiwan or other tea-focused articles.
A Space for Brush and Ink (203)
The next exhibit on the 3rd floor is dedicated to paintings, with rotating exhbits.
When I visited, there were two: “Have you eaten? Food and Drink in Painting and Calligraphy at the NPM” and “The Art of Life: Depictions and Meanings of Animals in Chinese Painting & Calligraphy”.
These featured a large number of paintings that had food, drinks, and animals as a theme. These will change to something different in summer 2025.
Digital Room (204)
The final room on the third floor, and a pretty small one, has some kind of digital interactive display or activity.
When I visited, it was focused on calligraphy, with stations where visitors could try painting characters digitally.
After that, I took the stairs back down to the first floor, where I visited rooms 101 and 102 (see First Floor section above) before leaving.
Overall, I really enjoyed my visit to the Southern Branch of National Palace Museum. Not many visitors go out of their way for it, but it’s pretty easy to make room for it before or after your trip to Alishan!