Taipei 101 is Taiwan's highest building with a height of 508 meters. It has 101 floors which is the origin for the name „Taipei 101“. You can find an observation deck on the 89th floor from which you have a full view on the city. The building has an impressive structure and technique to prevent earthquakes and typhoons to cause damage. Through the biggest pendulum, which moves against any movements affecting the building, the acceleration is reduced by half. The design of the tower is supposed to remind of bamboo, the orientation is built after the teaching of Fengshui, which is supposed to protect the building's people from bad luck.

How to get there:

Take the red metro line from Zongshan Station to Xiangshan, which will take you about 18 minutes or if you have a lot of energy you can walk for around 1 ½ hours. If you don't take the big main street you can walk through the more relaxed streets without lots of traffic and people.

Activites:

Of course you can go into the building itself to have a great view from the observation deck, but the view you can get from Elephant Mountain is much more impressive with Taipei 101 in your view. The climb up is very short but quite steep. Lots of steps lead up to the viewpoint and you can even hike a whole loop on the mountain. Lots of people use this trail as a workout route and it's a great place to escape the city and feel like you are surrounded by nature whilst still having an amazing view on Taipei.

Close to Taipei 101 there is an old village you can walk through called Four Four South Village and on the weekends there is a market that opens up from 1pm to 7pm. But even without the market the charming old houses give an impressive contrast to the towering Taipei 101 in the background.