World's Tallest Building and a Famous Museum

We traveled back up to Taipei and had one day up there before our flight Wednesday morning.


Taipei has the world's tallest building - the Taipei 101 (http://www.taipei-101.com.tw/index_en.htm). It's the tallest completed building for now - a taller building is still under construction in Dubai. They were going to charge $400 Taiwan dollars a person (approximately $13 US) to take the elevator all the way up. So being cheap, we just walked around the base and felt very small. :-)

View of Taipei from the mountainside. Taipei 101 is the only building sticking above the horizon toward the right. The haze is due to pollution and humidity.

We also visited the National Palace Museum. This museum is ranked among the top 10 museums in the world. A large part of the museum display is comprised of the collection from the ancient Chinese emperors. There were some amazing art pieces - like a little boat (with fully functional doors, windows, etc.) carved from an olive pit and stunning ceramics. The sad thing was that no pictures were allowed. :-( The website (http://www.npm.gov.tw/en/home.htm) has some good pictures for the curious.