Taiwan home to one of world's greatest collections of Chinese antiquities

Curiously, one of the world's greatest collections of Chinese antiquities is not in China – but across the Strait in Taiwan. In the early 20th century, the art collection of the Imperial Palace Museum, also known as the Forbidden City, was on the move. It left Beijing and criss-crossed the country for nearly 20 years in an effort to spare it from the ravages of war – firstly by Japanese forces, and then during China's Civil War.

When in 1949, the Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek retreated to the island of Taiwan – leaving Mao Tse-tung's communists in control of the mainland – he took the best pieces with him. In three ships and across stormy waters, more than 600,000 of the finest and most fragile artworks were transported. Remarkably, the precious cargo arrived entirely intact.

After landing in Taiwan, the collection remained in storage until a suitable space was designed. Built in traditional imperial style, the National Palace Museum opened in Taipei in 1965. That was about the same time that the Cultural Revolution was raging on the mainland when so much of China's ancient heritage was destroyed. Now the National Palace Museum is considered one of the world's greatest collections of Chinese antiquities, from the Neolithic age to the Qing dynasty. Andrew Burnett, former deputy director of the British Museum, says it is "in the front rank of international museums". Some compare it to the Louvre, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Prado.

I first visited the museum when I lived in Taiwan nearly 20 years ago. At that time, there were relatively few visitors and I would often have the place to myself. But since 2008, when travel restrictions eased for mainland Chinese, visitor numbers have doubled to nearly five million a year. The museum can feel overcrowded now but there are still few visitors from outside East Asia.

Yet herein lies the accumulated art collection of China's emperors, spanning a millennium, and including their fine taste in calligraphy, painting and porcelain. One of the museum's most celebrated pieces is a cabbage carved from jadeite, which uses the natural colours of the stone to create the vegetable. A grasshopper is camouflaged within the ruffle of leaves.

I always loved seeing the tiny boat carved from an olive stone; so intricate it is difficult to distinguish the figures and furniture through a magnifying glass. Astonishingly, the windows of the tiny vessel can be swung open and on the boat's base is etched the 300-character poem that inspired the artwork.

The oldest pieces – a chunky jade necklace and loop earrings – date back more than 8000 years. From the eastern Zhou dynasty, a simple jade cup marbled with veining was used to collect morning dew and sipped in the belief it might secure immortality.