The reason why is that back in 1949 China had a civil war – the Nationalists of Chiang Kai Shek versus the Communists of Mao Zedong. Chiang Kai Shek lost (hence the reason China was communist) and left mainland China with his followers to set up shop on the island of Taiwan (formerly Formosa). Before he left, he raided the national treasures of the Forbidden City – thousands and thousands of priceless historical artifacts that detail China’s history – and brought them to Taiwan. But this was probably a good thing because he set them up in an awesome museum that we will visit tomorrow.
History lesson over. After checking into our hotel and a little rest, we headed out into the early evening to find landmark number one in Taipei – the Taipei 101, which was the tallest building in the world until earlier this year when the Burj Dubai opened. It has 162 floors versus the 101 of Taipei! Still, in my opinion 101 floors is pretty impressive!
The kids and I bought tickets to go to the top and after 37 seconds in the world’s fastest elevators, we arrived on the 89th floor. As London said, it’s like being in an airplane! We toured all around the building and although the visibility was limited because of the weather, it was still amazing.
After touring the 89th floor, we walked up two more flights of stairs to the 91st floor, open-air observation floor. Cool! And not a bit scary, for me at least.
So after the 45 second elevator ride back down to the ground, we had dinner in the coolest food court area. Sure they had Subway and Cold Stone Creamery (which is strange enough considering we’re in the middle of Taiwan), but they also had Vietnamese pho, and Shanghai dumplings, and roasted chickens with their heads still on! It was awesome.
We then ventured back to the hotel via the very clean, very efficient, very civilized, and very busy subway system of Taipei.
Mom, you forgot to put anything about how the 101 lights up for each day!
ReplyDeleteC.