Anticipation
Silks Palace's opening might have happened to come just as a wave of mainland tourists is expected, but locals are also curious about this new international-level cultural point of interest.
Located to the west of the museum's main exhibition hall, Silks Palace is a five-story restaurant complex with nearly 5,000 square meters of floor space. Its exterior was designed by renowned architect Kris Yao, who has won numerous awards for the High Speed Rail station he designed for Hsinchu. To make the building blend into its mountainous surroundings, its outer wall is a translucent glass curtain that reflects the blue sky, the green of the mountains, and the NPM's facade. In the evenings, the warm glow it gives off is truly inspiring.
Behind the glass is latticework designed to look like the crackled glaze of Song-Dynasty Ru ware porcelain. The turquoise glaze of Ru ware, which crackled during firing, has been compared to the color of the sky peeking through clouds after rain. Yao used the crackled glaze as a theme for the walls, the main entryway, and the screens between tables, giving Silks Palace a rich, Chinese feel.
The interior was designed by the Japanese designer Yukio Hashimoto, who previously created interiors for Lan Ting and Silks House at the Grand Formosa Regent Taipei. The dining hall on the first floor, with a six-meter-high atrium in the middle, has the feel of an old Chinese lodge as seen in kung fu films like Dragon Inn or Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. To the sides of the walkway are two-story-high pillars inspired by jade cong artifacts from the Neolithic Liangzhu culture of more than 4,000 years ago. Cong were ritual implements used in ancestral worship. Hashimoto modeled 18 pillars on the implements and had them rise up into the second story, neatly combining a tradition of reverence with a modern dining space.
The first-floor dining area, which has 40 tables and seats 250 people, features hanging lamps modeled on bronze bells from the Western Zhou period. On the back wall are two classic paintings of banquets-one, with no artist's name stamp, is a scene of Tang-era palace pleasure-seeking, and the other, by the Huizong Emperor of the Song Dynasty, is of refined gentlemen sampling tea and reciting poetry.
On the second floor, on two sides of the atrium, there are ten private rooms themed around paintings and works of calligraphy in the museum's collection. The Song Xue Room, for example, features a silhouette of the Northern Song artist Zhang Zeduan's Along the River During the Qingming Festival, with light penetrating through the images of city life. The Lan Ting Room contains a lightbox with a blown-up image of calligrapher Wang Xizhi's Orchid Pavilion Preface. The Dong Po Room features calligraphy of Su Shi's poetry commemorating the Battle of Red Cliff. These replica artworks give dining an elegant air.
In the early evening, the shimmering lights of Silks Palace make for a poetic scene. After a day taking in the sights at the National Palace Museum, tourists can head there for an unforgettable meal.