Friday 22, November 2024

I knew the forecast for the time we were in Taipei was going to be cloudy with a slim chance of rain. Today is the first day of not riding the bikes and no rain.

After breakfast we got the necessary laundry done and then headed out to see Taipei 101.

We took the Metro (underground/Subway) to Taipei 101. The transit system was amazing. The total cost for the return journey was 120 NTW about $5.15 Cdn for two tickets – The trip was about 15 kms one way. We bought the tickets from the counter, but you could easily purchase them from a ticket machine. The person at the counter gave us a copy of the transit map, which came in very handy. The Metro was really easy to use and on our first trip to Taipei 101, we got of one train and crossed the platform to connect to the next train. All the announcements were in Chinese and English.

On our way back in the evening, there was an older Taiwanese lady who was giving the three young people who were sitting, the evil eye trying to get them to give up their seats for her. They kept their eyes glued to their cell phones. When we both sat down, because two of them had left the train, she complained about the young people of today not respecting us oldies. Or at least, I think that was what she was saying.

We had an awesome time at Taipei 101.

We took the elevator to Floor 89 and had a wander around. Unfortunately, we couldn’t go outside at Floor 91, as it had rained and they close the outside viewing platform when it is wet. While we were wandering around there was an announcement that we could go to Floor 101. The highest point with an indoor garden. Of course, we had to pay extra for this privilege.

As Ralf said we are only here once. We were 508 metres high (1,666.67 feet). The views from the top of Taipei 101 were pretty amazing but the engineering of this building and the Tuned Mass Damper was incredible.

The density of this City is incredible. A population of 7.66 million in Taipei and New Taipei. The first picture shows a new building that has 27 floors, we were way above that construction.

On the outside of the tower are these Ruyi shapes. The ruyi is a talisman of ancient origin associated in art with heavenly clouds. It represents healing, protection and fulfillment.

The Taipei 101 Tower was opened in December 2004. The planning started in 1997, the building began in 2000 and the roof was completed in 2003. It  was briefly the tallest skyscraper in the world until the Burh Khalifa Tower in Dubai surpassed it in 2010. Taipei 101 is now the 11^th Tallest building in the world. The Taipei Tower is designed to withstand typhoon winds and earthquake tremors.  Evergreen Consulting Engineering designed Taipei 101 to withstand gale force winds of 216 kph (134 mph) as well as the strongest earthquake in a 2,500-year cycle. One of the marvels of this incredible design is the tuned mass damper. The damper is the only one in the world that is visible to the public. It can reduce up to 40% of the tower’s movements.  Its ball, the largest damper ball in the world, consists of 41 circular steel plates of varying diameters, each 125 mm (4.92 in) thick, welded together to form a 5.5-meter-diameter (18 ft) ball. Two additional tuned mass dampers, each weighing 6 metric tons, are installed at the tip of the spire which help prevent damage to the structure due to strong wind loads. On 8 August 2015, strong winds from Typhoon Soudelor swayed the main damper by 1 meter (39 in)—the largest movement ever recorded by the damper. I think I would have liked to see it move, but then again that would mean that either there was a serious earthquake or a typhoon happening. Uhm maybe not move.

Taipei 101 has the fastest elevator in the world. It takes passengers from the 5^th to the 89^th floor in 37 seconds,  it travels at 60.6 km/h (37.7 mph). Yes your ears do pop.

We spent about 3 hours wandering around the tower. We also spotted another sculpture from the same artist that we had seen in Kenting.

When we came down we had a quick wander around 101 Mall – too rich for our pockets. There were some names I didn’t even recognize.

We had a nice dinner at a sizzling Steak house (they had fish as well) and then back to the hotel to relax and look at our options to get to the airport on Monday.

Option 1: stay here and take a taxi – past problems with taxis. On other trips, we have almost always had problems with taxis. Either the company sent a car instead of a van so they were too small for the bikes, they were late, or we had to take two taxis because of the bikes.

 Option 2: Cycle to Novotel – closest to airport, most expensive, pay extra for breakfast and possibly a free shuttle to airport;

Option 3: Cycle to City Suites Airport hotel, it has a free breakfast and if you need an early departure they will give you a boxed breakfast!;

Option 4: If it is raining we can take the train to a hotel near the airport.

We chose Option 3 – Cycle to City Suites Airport Hotel. If it is raining then we can catch the train and stay at City Suites as the train station is only a few kilometres from the hotel. In the past they were able to arrange a taxi to the airport for other guests. It is only 5 kms from the airport and should cost about 350 NTW to take a taxi.

We will see, at the moment the weather is looking good for Monday for us to ride to our last hotel.