A bit of Exploring!

By show of hands, who has been to the top of the world's tallest building??? I have, I have! Over the weekend I hit up Taipei 101. It's over 500 meters tall. Physics and the Mother Nature have an interesting friendship here. The whole of Asia is no stranger to typhoons, raging winds, and earthquakes. So it seems like an unlikely place to build the world's tallest building. However, just looking at the design you can get a feeling that a lot of the "natural dangers" have been given their due credit. In the core of the building is a HUGE orb suspended by thick cables and hydraulic pistons. When the the wind blows fiercely or the ground shakes, this orb sways to counter the movement of the Tower keeping it thus upright. Fascinating!

There was an observation deck on the 85 floor. The speed elevator took 8 seconds to get from floor five to 85. That's crazy fast. The speed elevators hold the Guiness World Record for fastest elevator (people, not freight). So, this is Taipei from 85 floors off the ground -- note we weren't even at the top of the building. There's still 16 floors before you reach the top!