Taipei 101

I arrived in Taipei today around 2PM.

It’s a pain in the ass to get here. You can’t fly directly from mainland China because of the political situation. Switching planes in Hong Kong is a nightmare because the airport terminal is about the size of Rhode Island. When you do land in Taipei, the taxi ride from the airport into the CBD takes another hour.

But I made it. It’s tropical here so it’s hot. It would be good beach weather, but I have no idea if we’re close to the water (I don’t see it.) I have no sense of Taiwan’s geography other than what I got from that crappy animated map they show on the airplane.

After checking in to the hotel I went to the city center, did a bit of walking around, ate at Chili’s and then watched an hour of the pointless remake of “The Omen” before walking out. The only really frightening part was Mia Farrow’s facelift.

I’ll kindly say the city (the small part I’ve seen of it) is non-descript. Choking urban sprawl with construction everywhere. Multi-level shopping malls with the requisite assortment of mid- to high-tier retailers. Endless, identical six story (or so) buildings in various states of decrepitude. Neon signs. Food stalls. Zillions of mopeds. Etc. Etc.

Taipei does have one notable attraction though. Taipei 101 is the world’s tallest building. (Pictured here. I shot the photo at a diagonal to try to get it in.) In fact, it’s really the only tall building in the city, perched like a middle-finger aimed at the bureaucrats in Beijing. It creates a rather ridiculous skyline, low-rise monotony interjected only with this glass and steel pagoda stretching over 100 stories up. If it’s the world’s tallest building then it’s also the world’s loneliest.

I thought about going to the observation deck. I can’t imagine that it’s very worthwhile. Maybe tomorrow evening after work.