Taipei 101

This is Taipei 101, officially the tallest building in the world at 508 meters tall (plus other world records like largest clock and the fastest elevator in the world), or 1,667 ft. The Burj Dubai, in Dubai still cannot officially claim itself as the tallest building in the world until it is complete. A structure is not considered a building until it can be fully occupied. You can read about lots of interesting facts about Taipei 101 including symbolism all over the building in it’s Wikipedia entry.

The photo above is of the “dampening system” that’s exposed on the 89th floor.

Night view from the 89th floor observatory of Taipei 101.

Dali-esque trippy painting. On the 89th floor, they showcase different artists’ works. They also have a huge collection of natural crystals, fancy globes of the world (they had one for sale for $30K USD), and coral.

Eunmi pointed out the “Sea of Japan” on some of the globes for sale in the Taipei 101 observatory.  This is somewhat of a controversy in Korea, because Koreans believe it should be called simply, “The East Sea” to be fair to both countries. If I was a betting man, I’d bet that every globe or map you’ll find within Korea’s borders will surely label the sea as “The East Sea,” or maybe even “The Sea of Korea.”

Structural support for Taipei 101 viewed from the 5th floor. Pretty neat how they designed what would normally be ugly, with aesthetics in mind.