Taipei 101

TAIPEI 101
At the time of writing, Taipei 101 – standing 509 meters high – is the tallest building in the world. This alone puts it to the top of the list of sights that are must sees, while traveling to Taiwan. The skyscraper is open for business and welcomes travelers from all around the world to take a look over Taipei.

IDEA BEHIND THE BUILDING
C.Y.Lee, the designer of the building used bamboo as his “yardstick”. The design of Taipei 101 practically oozes modern Asian architecture. Mr. Lee has also reached outside nature as his inspiration and therefore Chinese lucky number 8 is represented as eight floors, which make up one “bamboo segment” of the tower.

FORWARD THINKING
Construction project of the tower had to deal multitude of obstacles. The island of Taiwan is prone for earthquakes and typhoons. All this had to be taken into consideration. Furthermore this landmark is bound to tip the commercial geography of Taipei city, therefore transportation routes like roads and subway are already measured so that they can handle the coming traffic. Subway or MRT as they call it in Taiwan does not actually reach the skyscraper, not just yet. However there is already a MRT station beneath the tower. Vertical transportation has also been on agenda and the building has world’s fastest lifts.

PRESENT USE
Taipei 101 is a mixture of commercial and financial use. International businessman can came for a business visit never having to leave the building such a complete palette of services the building houses. While it has been tipping the balance of commercial geography in Taipei, it has even wider scope in Taiwan and even outside Taiwan. Seems like Taipei 101 is going to develop into a magnet that draws the world to Taiwan, just as the Taipei mayor Ma Ying-Jeou said in his opening speech.

TAIPEI 101 RESOURCES
Here I have included some links to Taipei 101 related resources. I have also used these sites as my sources while finding information on Taipei 101.

Behind this link, you will find a diagram and detailed information about Taipei 101. There are also many other tall buildings, probably the best site covering skyscrapers.

Wikipedia has detailed information on almost every possible topic.

Taiwan Fun is a free magazine and website that writes about popular culture. It is a good source for travelers in Taiwan as well as a person who wants to read more about Taipei 101.

This is an official webpage for Taipei financial center corporation.

Here is a link to a page of Taipei 101 Mall. Get those credit cards ready...

Taiwan's Frist Swedish Restaurant - Flavor

Flavor - the first Swedish restaurant in Taiwan, just opened.

A typical reason that makes many foreigners reside in Taiwan, like the Swedish chef, Ola Kronkvist, is his Taiwanese wife. Love history of the two were written on the menu of "Flavor", and all the dishes were said to be taught from Ola's grandmother.

Yes, this is a place that tastes like Swedish home, they said.

How SWEDISH is the Flavor? Take a look at the menu:

Potatos and onion soup（Potatis och Lok Soppa）- A traditional Swedish soup with crushed potatos and onions plus thyme.

Swedish meatball (Kottbullar) - Ola mixes pork and beef meat with imported Swedish lingonberry sauce or traditional brown sauce, matched with fried potatoes.

Vanila applepie - baked applepie with cinnemom and vanila taste

The chef recommends: ribs grilled with orange sauce and BBQ, the secret of dish is "3 days+3 hours": ribs that are flavored with orange sauce, ginger, spices for 3 days, and in the oven for 3 hours.

And all different flavors of Snaps - the traditional Swedish drink. Snaps uses Vodka with different kinds of spices such as vanila, clove, orange skin, black currant etc. it takes c.a. 1 week to make the drink.

Newly opened Flavor has attracted many Swedish, Finnish, Danish guests in Taiwan. The lunch menu price ranges from 200 NT to 400 NT. Reasonable price with authentic food.

Address: 1F, No.8-3, Alley 107, San-Min Road, Taipei

Phone: (02)27691971。

Closed on Monday

Information and image resource: http://yam.udn.com/yamnews/daily/2773597.shtml