We’re now back in the capital Taipei, and have visited Taipei 101, which is a mega-skyscraper that’s almost but not quite as tall as the CN Tower. That said, it has a faster elevator, which takes just an ear-popping 34 seconds to reach the observation deck on the 89th floor.
Taipei 101 on the left, with the picture above showing the view. A little foggy that day, unfortunately.
Taiwan is earthquake-prone and subject to typhoons, so there were challenges in building something this high here. I tried not to think about any of this until I was back at ground level again, but must confess I felt I was swaying a bit up there, though that could have been my imagination playing tricks. The tower holds a Tuned Mass Damper, which is a 600-ton suspended steel ball in the centre of the structure’s core, up around the 80th floor, that moves to counteract the building-sway effect of earthquakes and typhoons. Thankfully it was not moving when I saw it, but I took a video-of-a-video showing it swinging during Typhoon Soudelor in 2015. I do hope it was filmed by an unmanned camera, and that some poor soul was not up there filming during this scary event.
Visited the Puppet Arts Centre, a fun and funky little museum dedicated to this historic form of entertainment. Lots of puppets from around the world, some videos of what happens behind the scenes, and demos of the ways puppeteers can move multiple parts at the same time. There were mock-ups we could use to try our skill, and believe me it was hard to move just one leg or one arm the right way at one time. Can’t imagine making a puppet dance, scratch its ear, fight with another puppet, and move its jaw, all at the same time.
We found ourselves at one point in a very upscale shopping center, with stores like the Mink Mile in Toronto, and are not exactly sure why the Canadian city that made it into the list of sites with directional pointers was (can you guess?)…
Our guided trip is now over and we are on our own. In planning a day trip to Tainan on the west coast, we went to the main train station last night to buy our tickets for the journey today. We also tried to scope out a place where we could pick up a coffee before boarding the train. This enormous train station has about 20 bakeries and pastry shops, all selling amazing-looking stuff, and all doing a brisk business, but NONE of them sell tea or coffee as well. To a Canadian, that just seems so strange. Finally found one lonely Starbucks, up on the third floor of the station, well away from where people actually board the trains. It’s not a big takeaway coffee culture, that’s for sure. But do check out a sample of the beautiful bakeries:
So now I am curious- what do they drink when they have their pastries? Or, are all those treats intended for taking home? I am guessing that eating and drinking in public may be uncommon. As for the puppets – I think that would be significantly more difficult than tea bags!
Curious, how did Geoff’ s Mandarin hold up with the locals?
That is fascinating about the big pendulum. It is scary to think that the slow swinging in the basement is just a reflection of the whole building heaving about in the wind. Glad you are having a great holiday. 😊