- Even though I had been several times in Taipei before, and had seen the uniquely shaped skyscraper from a distance, I somehow had never set foot in it. When we open the curtains and see the sunshine, we know that this is a good time to change that. We buy a ticket online, and before we know it, are in line for the elevator. Not just any elevator: this is the fastest elevator in the world. It takes us to the 89th floor in just 37 seconds, at a speed of over 1000 meters per minute. And yes, our ears pop during the ride. The 89th floor has windows on all sides. It is when you look outside that you realize how high you have travelled in just over half a minute. Far below us, we see traffic flow through the streets of the Taiwanese capital, we see people on the sidewalks, we see buildings, and surprisingly close, also mountains.
- There are explanatory boards telling us what we are looking at. The Elephant Mountain, and other mountains supposedly shaped like animals that I unfortunately cannot all recognize. I spot the Yangmingshan mountains where I hiked a few years before. On the other side, it is easy to spot the city airport. Apart from the views, there are special chairs for taking pictures. There are several souvenir shops, and a bar. There are decorative neon lights attached to some windows. There are explanations about the tower itself. There are small sections with a glass floor giving a better idea of the height of the tower. You can walk up two floors, go outside, where you unfortunately find a high fence blocking much of the view. When you turn around, you look up the top ten floors of Taipei 101.
- But most interestingly, there is the Tuned Mass Damper (TMD). Taipei sits in an area where both typhoons and earthquakes are common, and obviously, both can be detrimental to such a high tower. The damper limits the impact and can reduce it to around 40%. I have been to other extremely high skyscrapers, but never seen this technique. It looks like a massive ball, hangs from steel cables, and is made from plates of steel. The damper weighs 660 metric tonnes. To make the audience understand its workings, there are videos showing actual swaying of the damper when Taipei 101 gets hit by typhoons, and also a video showing the theory behind it. Inevitably, learning more about the challenges that those who built this monster tower means that I will never look at Taipei 101 in the same way.
