Taipei 101

My meetings for today fell through, so I actually had no obligations. My boss thinks it is annoying when this happens-- and it is a waste of company resources-- but I secretly enjoy it because I like to be a tourist.

So today I caught a ride into Taipei from a guy who contracts with my company. I wanted to get a basic look at the city-- call it a "Taipei 101" lesson. Another guy from my company who was already in Taipei agreed that he could do it that afternoon.

We had lunch at an "Italian" restaurant-- the menu resembled Sizzler; is that Italian? The most interesting part was the dessert. It was some kind of mushroom (!) in a sweet syrup along with a date and some ginseng nuts. The mushroom was one of those "fluffy" ones with lots of thin layers, and they were softened by the syrup and rather bland so there wasn't a mushroom taste. Pretty good!

Then I met the second guy from my company, who took me to the new skyscraper. It's certainly the tallest building in Taiwan, but I recall that it holds some international record also. It's called "Taipei 101," which has two meanings: first, it represents the technological hope for the country (you know, digital: 10101010). Second, it represents 101%, a surpassing of perfection. Pretty grandiose, but it is a lovely-looking building. The architecture is a mix of modern with traditional elements like scrollwork that resembles a Chinese temple. It also has four "coin" shapes around the outside that stand for good luck.

The elevator up is fast: 89 floors in 36 seconds. My ears were popping! The view was poor, however, since it was raining and foggy. We couldn't even see to the sea, which isn't that far away. But we saw the nearby buildings and hills.

Actually, though, the highlight for me was the amazing damping system they have in place. It's made to protect the building from high winds, earthquakes, and other phenomena. The way it works is that there are three massive spheres, each weighing close to 500 tons, suspended and attached to a hydraulic control system. They can be shifted to balance the building and damp out vibrations as needed through a complex, precise feedback system. If a huge earthquake were to come, they would move as much as 1 or 2 meters, but in normal conditions, the shifts are too small to see. It was a windy day, and we could hear the groans of the hydraulic system, but couldn't see the spheres move. Apparently, this system was designed in Japan and is used in two buildings there already, but Taiwan got the third. Neat!

The rest of Taipei 101 has fancy shops and business offices. There is a Louis Vuitton shop where they only allow 20 or 30 people at once. Apparently at busy times there is actually a line to get in! No line for us in the middle of a weekday, so we looked around. Lots of pricey handbags, shoes, belts, and watches. Eh, not my thing.

Next we headed out to a ritzy section of town where lots of CEOs have apartments. We drove by a huge ferris wheel (called the Fairy Wheel) that is the second-largest in the world. (The biggest is in Yokohama-- the very first place I went in Asia! I opened my hotel curtains the first night I ever spent in Japan, and there it was beaming at me).

Then we went to the Grand Hotel, which is a fancy painted building that resembles a traditional Chinese mansion up on a hill. It's sort of the Waldorf Astoria of Taipei. The lobby had nice carving all over the ceiling, brasswork, woodwork, fancy carpets-- the works. There was a huge vase with hundreds of purple flowers, all fresh! They arrange them there every day. Also a nice golden dragon fountain. Worth stopping by, even if it was in the end just a hotel.

That was about what we could accomplish in half a day. I headed back to Hsinchu with the first guy who drove me in. He told me about something called bin lang. There are bin lang shops along the streets, always small and intimate and staffed by a pretty woman. Bin lang is some kind of weird fruit that tastes bad, but is modified with some chemical so it's at least acceptable. But the alteration makes it bad to swallow, so you take some and chew on it like gum, then get rid of it. It's also supposed to be bad for your teeth.

Why, pray tell, do this? Apparently it's sort of like a shot of espresso; it's supposed to be fortifying, and macho guys do it to prove their strength. (Hence the pretty women selling the stuff). Not many women do bin lang, although a few do.

Sounds intriguing. I'm not sure I got all the details right since my guide's English wasn't perfect, but if even part of it is true, it's still intriguing.