Country #49! While Taiwan is not a member of the UN, and is not recognized by most nations (including the USA), it is undebateably a sovereign nation. It resides in the long shadow cast by China, who claims it as a "renegade province" of mainland China. Taiwan has been governing itself since 1949.
My travels to Asia this time around were on China Air, so it was easy to get a free stopover in Taipei. Taipei is another huge city of 2.6 million. It's airport is a long way from the city, so Aaron and I got a scenic bus ride through the suburbs to get to our hotel. We then added a fruitless march carrying our bags through the city to where I thought our hotel was. People are really nice in Taipei. Just open your map up and look confused and someone will step up and help you find your destination. We showed up at the wrong hotel, and after jovially trying to convince us to just stay at their hotel, they wrote directions to our actual hotel in Chinese, hailed a cab for us, and told the cabbie where to take us. Thanks Neil and Chantelle!
Yes, the hotel clerks were named Neil and Chantelle. Apparently when you are of Chinese descent and you get a job in the hotel industry, you have to pick a westernized name. I didn't have the heart to tell Chantelle, that she is almost certainly the first Chinese named Chantelle ever.
Yes, the hotel clerks were named Neil and Chantelle. Apparently when you are of Chinese descent and you get a job in the hotel industry, you have to pick a westernized name. I didn't have the heart to tell Chantelle, that she is almost certainly the first Chinese named Chantelle ever.
So what is there to do and see in Taipei? Not much. We walked through Snake Alley, a "tourist market" where they sell the same cheap crap that they sell in every night market in Asia, with the addition of snakes. Big snakes. Aaron saw a 10foot python. I moved on. You can drink snake blood here, as seen on the cable travel/drinking show "Three Sheets". We did not partake. That's all we could find to do in Taipei. No bar scene. Just a big city focused on business. Oh, and the world's tallest building.
Taipei 101 is currently, officially, the World's Tallest Building. I think his is really awesome. I like to check off Really Big Things on my list during my travels. And this the THE BIGGEST OF THEM ALL. Sort of. It's actually much smaller than the Burj Dubai, a massive tower in the United Arab Emirates. However, the Burj is not open for business yet, so according to the people who decide these things Taipei 101 is still #1.
This picture does not even begin to illustrate how big this building is. It isn't just taller than the other high-rises in Taipei, it's like three time higher than the next tallest building. It sticks out like a bizarre aberration of architecture. Taipei 101 is 1,670 feet, and has been the tallest in the world since 2004.
Taipei 101 also has the World's Fastest Elevator. It hits a top speed of 37.7MPH on the way up. My ears popped twice during the ride, but I had no sensation of speed.
The view was OK. It's smoggy in Taipei, like everywhere else in Asia, so the visibility was less than ideal.
This trip up Taipei 101 is the crowning jewel of my visits to Really Big Things. I've also been to the Petronas Towers (tallest in the world from 1998-2004), the Eiffel Tower (tallest structure in the world from 1889-1930), Washington Monument (tallest structure from 1884-1889), Cologne Cathedral (tallest from 1880-1884), and St Olaf's church in Estonia (world's tallest structure from 1549-1625).
Our mission in Taipei complete, we headed back to the airport.
