Yesterday morning a party of my 10 erstwhile classmates and I gethered at Chang Da-chi'en Residence(張大千故居) which is tucked away down a tranquil alley in Waishuangxi(外雙溪), not far away from Palace Museum.  By Taiwan's standard, the residence is kind of a villa with garage, front yard, back yard(actually a mini-sized garden with rockery, gazebo and arbour, and Chang himself is buried in there.), and the main structure of a two-storied western-style house.  We were allowed to have a tour on first floor only, in which his studio is reserved, some of his paintings and calligraphy works are exhibited(all duplicates), and the parlor and the dinning room used to entertain celebrities.  Now the house is taken care by Palace Museum(So visitors have to make appointment online with the Museum.  But I don't know if Chang's offsprings have donated the house to the government; some of his genuine paintings have.).

Then we went to the Museum to visit a special exhibition of Terra-cotta Warriors and Horses.  Actually there were only five or six images displayed, which absolutely paled by comparison with the ones at the excavating spot in Xi'an; hence, I guess other visitors must haven't experienced the same feeling of eye-poppomg shock as I did when I saw the magnifient phalanxes of warriors displayed in the tunnels six years ago.  But the Museum compensated the visitor with a concise introduction of the culture of Qing Empire with abundant artifacts.

We had our lunch at a garden restaurant located in a secluded path of Yangmingshan.  After that leisurely meal, we resumed our "journey" to Lin Yutang Residence(林語堂故居) in the middle range of the mountain.  The House is not as spacious as that of Chang Da-chi'en's, but the view of it is much better.  Well, I bought two volumes of Dr. Lin's "The wisdom of Laotse" there, for I love Laotse as well as Dr. Lin's incomparable proficiency in writing both Chinese and English.