Taipei 101

.. the landmark of Taipei. The Taipei 101 (the name derives from its 101 stories) is the world's tallest building - at least until September 2009 when the Burj Dubai will be completed - and with its distinctive bamboo-shape it is visible from far away throughout the whole city.

Sun Yat-Sen Memorial with the Taipei 101 in the back ...

... and looking down on the Memorial from almost 400m above on top of the Taipei 101.

The tourist-cramped elevator accelerates to about 60km/h and takes you up to the 89th floor in less than 40 seconds. With regards to the engineering aspects of the building, what is also fascinating about it is the stabilizer - a tuned mass damper. It is an over-sized steel pendulum that weighs about 660tons and hangs down from the 92th to the 88th floor. It can move up to 1.5m and thus compensate for movements in the building caused by strong winds.
Besides that ... the view from the outside observatory on the 91th floor(392m above ground) is absolutely stunning.

the Taipei 101 resembles a bamboo stick with intersections every 8 floors

view South over Taipei

view North

The admission fee to the observation floor is a little bit expensive but because of the excellent weather the outdoor deck on the 91th floor was also open and so I spent quite some time walking around the tower and looking at the city beneath from every perspective.
It wasn't long until sunset and I was right about expecting a wonderful spectacle of colors on the almost clear sky.

looking west as the sun begins to settle down

The intensity of the light and the colors in the sky changed with the sun playing hide and seek behind the clouds on the horizon. It would come out for a few moments between two stripes of clouds only to vanish again some minutes later.

I tried to get the most out of my old camera and catch the mood of those moments. Take a look ...

pitch-black night on the horizon but Taipei stays restless