101 Taipei Tower

 This was a request from Jojo.  On the first floor or two there are a lot of restaurants - one of which was reputed to be the best dim sum restaurant in Taipei.  Jojo was very keen to try it.  Alex was not so excited about heights, but he was game anyway.

The kids are sleeping very late - which works out as nothing opens up until 11am here.  But this morning he did not have time to eat anything before we headed for the Tower.  You see Dr. Doughnut places all over - and there was one in this food court.  We needed something fast to keep Alex energized, and didn't want a full sit down meal until later.  So we all got doughnuts.  They turned out much different than U.S. doughnuts.  The dough is much gummier and chewy.  The flavors just enough different to be weird.  Michael choose the plainest looking one,  I got the chocolate one.  Other choices were the chocolate covered doughnut, plain with glaze.  My chocolate one seemed the most "normal"!  I don't need to try that again.

Then we got our tickets and took the elevator up to the 89th floor.  

You get out of the metro and are presented by this sight.

Inside the tower waiting in line for the elevator.

They dimmed the lights for part of the 37 second ride to the 89th floor for this view of the ceiling of the elevator.

Once off the elevator on the 89th floor you are greeted with a 360 view around the outside.  The inside sections house restaurant and coffee places.

And all kinds of gimmicks to include in your photos.

In one corner there is a glass floor.  I had fun taking photos.  I liked the pose of the guy next to me - and including a guy in the floor below.  The floors of many levels below are also glass so you can see quite a ways down.

The gift store.

I got Jojo to get close to the glass floor - and surprise, surprise - there is Alex!

Some random stranger pretending she has wings.  You just stand in front of the wings and others take photos of you.

We walked up the stairs to the 91st floor where you can go outside.  But the slatted wall prevents much of a view and it was windy.

 

The 101 Taipei building is kept from swaying in the wind or during storms by this pendulum called a tuned mass damper.  It is beautiful to look at and does a super job.  It is 6 stories high and weighs 650 tons.  It has withstood a 6.8 earthquake without a sway!

You can take another elevator up to the 101st floor for a higher view.  It adds a lot to the ticket cost - and I think you can see less.  The rest of the floors house offices, the Taiwan stock exchange and much shopping.

The Dim Sum restaurant we ate lunch at was on the first floor.  The four of us got 7 things.  Each of the Dim sum servings had 5 pieces, + we had fried rice, some kind of pea greens and soup.  All of us were quite full - but there were no left overs!  My husband is more of a foodie - so here is a link to his blog - https://de-intimidator.blogspot.com/

I didn't realize the light was so blue until I saw the photos on my computer.  I have attempted to correct it but they are still somewhat blue.  You would think it is natural light having the windows all around the outside.