Taipei 101

Taipei 101 rises 508 metres above the Xinyi District at No. 7, Section 5, Xinyi Road, and held the title of the world's tallest building from 2004 to 2010. The tower's stacked, pagoda-like segments of eight floors each are a deliberate reference to bamboo and to traditional Chinese architecture, and the silhouette dominates the skyline of Taipei, Taiwan, from almost every direction. Visitors enter through the shopping mall at the base, buy tickets on the fifth floor, and ride a high-speed elevator to the indoor observatory on floors 88 to 91 in under a minute. The indoor deck offers a 360-degree view across the Taipei Basin, the Keelung River and the mountains that ring the city, with audio guides explaining the landmarks below. The best-known feature is the 660-tonne tuned mass damper, a gilded steel sphere suspended near the 88th floor that sways to counter typhoon winds and earthquakes; it is open to view and is one of the few places where a building's engineering is on public display. On clear days the open-air Skyline 460 on floor 101 is available for an additional fee, with a narrow exterior walkway that closes in strong wind or rain. A typical visit takes 1.5 to 2 hours including the queue, the damper and some time in the souvenir shops. For photography, the late afternoon allows a daylight view, a sunset transition and the city lights in a single visit, although tickets for that window sell out first and weekends and public holidays are the busiest. Weekday afternoons and the last hour before closing are generally quieter. The base of the building houses a mall with international brands and a basement food court, and the tower is the focal point of the annual New Year's Eve fireworks display. For the classic photograph of the tower itself, rather than the view from it, many visitors hike the Elephant Mountain trail in the Xinyi area, about a 20-minute walk from the same MRT station. Cloud and haze can hide the view entirely, so checking the weather before buying a ticket is sensible.