Getting high! @.@

You know what: I love tall buildings! No matter if TV or communication tower or skyscraper or just some tourist attraction viewing platform... but preferably with outside access.
It's sooo cool to stand on top of a 400 meter tall building and look down to the sparkling city lights of Las Vegas, Chicago or Manhattan!
Those buildings are masterpieces of human engineering.
I mean, look at the Empire State Building in Manhattan, N.Y, N.Y.
Completed in 1931 after only 18 month of construction, it was the world's tallest building for over 40 years until 1972, when World Trade Center's North Tower was finished. Isn't that amazing? They didn't have computer simulations or things like that back then, not even simple electronic calculators! Just plain old school engineering. ..wow!!!

During this trip, I already had the chance to go up on Tokyo Tower, an experience which will definetely be listed in my personal Top-5 list of tall building climbings. :-)

Today, there's another tall building highlight: Taipei 101!
At 509 meters height, it was the world's tallest building after completion in 2004. Right now, it's number six on the list of the world's tallest existing freestanding structures.
Its gorgeous architecture, resembling Asian style pagodas and bamboo, is unique and outstanding.

Well, let's go up there! The elevator takes you up to 89th floor in just 37 seconds, which equals a speed of 60 km/h. This is really fast and set a new world record for elevators in 2004!

The indoor observation platform on 89th floor offers 360 degrees view. It's kinda hard to take good pictures of the city from there, as there is too much stray light from indoor lighting. There's an outside platform on 91st floor, but due to the ballustrade you don't get a good look from there.
To prevent the building from shaking due to earthquake or heavy wind, they have the very famous super big wind damper system up there.
Looks like a VERY big golden ball, very beautiful! I really hope the fixing ropes won't break and the ball won't fall down 80 floors!

Well, to be honest... I was kinda disappointed from the view up there. Compared to cities like Tokyo, Vegas, New York or even Chicago, there's not so much to see... the city just isn't that big and there just aren't so many tall buildings nearby.
If you look at the 101 from outside, it's the same... although the building is very beautiful and soooo tall, you don't get the right impression, because there are no other tall buildings around you could use as an indication for its size... it's just standing there, lonely, by itself! Very sad... because the building itself is really really gorgeous.
However, it was a great experience to be up there! One more amazing tall building on my list! Yay! :-P