Though I’ve been to the Taipei 101 many times, and have gone up to the observatory more times than I could remember, the Taipei 101 is still somewhat of a treat. Though Hong Kong and mainland China have numbed my senses and my ability to be impressed with skyscrapers, the fact that this Taiwanese phallic symbol stands unique in a city that has almost no skyscrapers makes it special. If you go up a skyscraper on Hong Kong island the best that you can hope for is seeing the behinds of other skyscrapers and the Victoria harbor somehow peeping in between. With the Taipei 101 you got panoramic views as far as the eye can see.
Starting off from the Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hall area …
Then getting a bit closer near the Warner Bros shopping area…
With the various posh Mitsukushi-s shopping malls and a few other new ones I haven’t seen before…
This time, I didn’t do the observation deck. There was no need, I had connections. Taking me up to the offices up on the can’t-remember-what-floor (above the sky Starbucks), the views were as nice as I remembered.
You might notice the yellow Sun Yat Sen MH roof and a few relatively new skyscrapers around the city hall area. If you want to see Taipei from above – with the mountains surrounding the city, then Taipei 101 it has to be.