17 October: Taipei 101

On this date in 2003 the pinnacle was put in place on top of Taipei 101, making it the tallest building in the world, 50 metres taller than the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur.

1. Some vital statistics: the height of the building is 509.2 m (1,671 ft) measured from the ground to the tip of the spire on top. The foundation goes down 80m/262 feet. The floor area is 412,500 square meters (4,440,100 square feet). It cost around US$1.934 billion to build, and construction took five years.
2. It was the world's tallest inhabited building for a while, until the Burj Khalifa in Dubai overtook it in 2010. It still holds the record for being the world's tallest “green” building. 20-30% of its Water is recycled. It also claims the record for being the world's largest New Year's Eve countdown clock (it opened on New Year's Eve 2004 to a massive firework display and this tradition has continued), and the world's largest sundial as you can tell the time in the afternoons from where its shadow falls on an adjacent circular park.
3. As well as removing any excuse for not knowing the time, the tower has also removed any excuse for not knowing what day it is, at least in the evening. It lights up in a different colour of the rainbow each night corresponding to the day of the week – Red on Monday, Orange on Tuesday, Yellow on Wednesday and so on.
4. The name of the building comes from its owners,Taipei Financial Center Corporation. The 101 has a number of meanings. On a practical level, it's the number of floors, but 101 has some symbolic meanings, too. It symbolises renewal, as it goes beyond the traditionally “complete” number of 100, and represents the the digital language of binary.
5. The tower was built to withstand winds of up to 134 mph and, since the building is located just 660 feet away from a major fault line, Earthquakes. This was tested before the building was even complete. In 2002 an earthquake dislodged one of the construction cranes, which fell 47 floors and killed five people. There was no structural damage to the building, however, and construction resumed a week later. Taipei 101 owes its stability in part to a huge damper, which is basically a 728-ton steel pendulum with a huge steel ball measuring 5.5m/18ft in diameter. It is suspended between the 87th and 92nd floors and is visible to visitors. It offsets up to 40% of the building's movements. The damper has a mascot called the Damper Baby, which even has its own website.
6. The building was designed by Taiwanese architecture firm C.Y. Lee & Partners. The tower has eight segments with eight floors in each. These were designed to look like ancient Chinese ingots or money boxes as a symbol of abundance. Some say they look rather like a stack of boxes from a Chinese takeaway. Actually, they're not so far off with that, as Chinese takeaway boxes were designed to look like the ancient Money boxes. The number eight is also associated with abundance.
7. The number four, on the other hand, is deemed unlucky, and so there is no 44^th floor. The 44th floor has been replaced by Level 43, with 42A replacing the actual 43.
8. The building has double-deck elevators which whisk people from the fifth floor to the 89^th floor in 37 seconds. That's a speed of 60.6 kilometres (37.7 miles) per hour, 16.83 meters (55.22 feet) per second, making them the fastest lifts in the world. The building has 61 elevators and they have atmospheric controls to keep passengers’ ears from popping as they ascend.
9. So what's inside the building? There's a multi-storey shopping mall, three restaurants on the 85^th and 86^th floors, an outdoor observatory on the 91^st floor which is the highest in Taiwan and the second highest outdoor observatory ever at 391.8 meters (1,285 feet) above the ground. If you don't fancy going outside there is an indoor observatory on the 89^th floor.
10. On the 101^st floor there is a private club called Summit 101. You can only become a member if you are very famous or very rich. Its members comprise Foreign dignitaries, Hollywood film stars, and people who have spent more than a million Taiwanese dollars (US$31,017) in the Taipei 101 Mall.

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