Taipei Travel

I’ve been to a few different observation decks all over the world, and I rate this close to the top. The views are amazing, and as this was once the tallest building in the world up until recently, it almost feels as if you are looking out of an aeroplane window. There’s a massive shopping centre beneath the tower, which you have to navigate to find the entrance to the observation deck. If you are in Taipei, then definitely check out Taipei 101.

Taipei 101 Tower is Taiwan’s tallest skyscraper and was tallest building in the world between 2004-2010 with 101 stories above ground and 5 basement floors below ground. Taipei Views - The 88th and 88th floors are the Indoor Observation Deck. The Outdoor Observation Deck is on the 91st and 101st floor. Both indoor and outdoor observation decks require separate ticket. You can get great views of Taipei from all sides of the building. On the 35th floor you can get the same speculator view for the price of coffee and pastry at Starbucks. It is the only Starbucks in the world to require reservation. (We made our reservation through our hotel concierge since we didn’t spoke Mandarin language.). ((There is also a Starbuck in the basement level food level with no view.)) The Shopping Mall - At the bottom of the tall tower is a multi-level shopping mall. The mall gathered most of the expensive high end brands in clothing, jewelry, leather goods, and restaurants in the upper 5 floors. There are no bargains here. Down below, the basement level is the more interesting floor with a food court, various restaurants, gift stores, and an international grocery store. Food Court B1 - The food court on B1 floor is huge with plenty of outlets for both locally owned and several international chains. Two food purveyors have Michelin stars in their home country. Set your bags down to save the seat (like the locals) then go purchase your meal. I went to the Food Court three times during my stay. The many dishes and food presentation were always a DELIGHTFUL VIEW ... at Taipei 101 Tower.

Though it is just a tall building but not tall enough to be no. 1 in the world, it is still a symbolic and remarkable building in Taipei. I especially like its parking space and the shopping mall, it is spacious and can enjoy the easy time in this gigantic building. If you are interested in the architecture elements you can find many attractive and symbolic image, such as the ancient coin (fortune), bamboo (bright future) and the lady skirt (the shopping mall extension from the office building), etc. There are many things you can look around in this building and you can also go other attractions near 101.

Having enjoyed a meal at one of Taipei's most famous restaurants, we found ourselves at the foot of this Taipei icon. Rising slightly over half a kilometre into the air and easily the tallest building in all of Taipei, its stylised design was inspired by a stalk of bamboo. Despite it not being a weekend, we found the ground floor packed with loads of visitors, especially young locals who had made it a place to hang out. We headed past the luxury shopping and dining areas on the first few floors for the elevators that would bring us to the observation deck. There were less visitors here, and not much of a queue to reach the top. The elevators did not have glass windows so everyone merely paid attention to the graphical display that showed us travelling at an impressive top speed of just over a thousand metres per minute and reaching top top in slightly over half a minute. At the observation deck, we found the all-ound views of Taipei and its surrounding hills quite grand although visibility was somewhat affected by a rain squall that arrived suddenly along with some fog. One of the highlights of visiting the observation deck was seeing the incredibly heavy damper used to minimise swaying of the building in heavy winds. Made out of steel, shaped like a pendulum and weighing over six hundred tonnes, visitors can even purchase souvenir mascots that are similar in shape. We certainly enjoyed our visit, and our kids enjoyed the visit enough that they also chose to have their photos imprinted onto T-shirts designed with the building in the background.

We visited this tower at night after our visit to Elephant mountain or Xiangshan. Plenty of people milling around and brightly lit and colorful. You can buy a ticket and go up to the observatory, but we didn't 'cos we have better views up on Xiangshan or elephant mountain and the views were free. You can see Taipei 101 from many areas including Dr Sun Yat Sen memorial grounds, but Xiangshan offers the best view. This used to be the tallest building in the world from 2004 to 2010 before it was dethroned by the Burj Khalifa in UAE. The Taipei 101 Metro station is right outside.