To the top of the tallest building in the world: Taipei 101

What's a trip to Taipei without seeing the world's tallest building (for the moment). I suppose it's a good thing I went to Taipei when I did... in another year it will not be able to hold the title of the worlds tallest building. The Burj Dubai, in Dubai, has already reached 160 floors, but it is still not completed, so it has not yet been declared the world's largest building. If you want to read a crazy article, check out the Wikipedia article for the Burj Dubai. But... I digress.

Taipei 101 is located in the Taipei's new financial district. You can reach it from about a 10 minute walk from City Hall Station or Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hall Station.



The architects tried, pretty effectivly, I think, to combine traditional chinese archetecture with a modern design. This photo explains how the building was modeled after bamboo. You can kind of see that, can't you?


This is a damper ball. I'm no physicist, but it basically keeps the building from moving too much in the wind or in the event of an earthquake. This is the biggest damper ball on public display, although most tall buildings have damper balls, though not quite this big.


Well, I am in Asia. Everything has to be cute. So, I guess in order to hype up the damper ball, they created damper babies! This is me with a damper baby. (When I first read it, I though it said diaper baby... its not a diaper baby, its a damper baby. Completely different). They are kind of cute though, huh?


Here is the entrance down at the first floor. The first 5 floors or so is a large shopping area.


Yes, that's Prada and Dior. No I did not do any shopping in this mall. This was just the tip of the iceberg... there was Armani, Versace, Dolce & Gabbana... etc etc etc... for five floors. Why bother even looking? You know the cheapest thing is going to be $500.


Here is a nice aireal view of the Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hall. You kind of feel like you're in an airplane... everything starts to take on that toy-like quality when you're up so high.

A view of Taipei and the mountains in the distance. The two white bridges in the photo are McArthrur 1 and McArthur 2. Yup, really.