Taipei 101 held the title of world’s tallest building from 2004 to 2009, but at a “mere” 509.2 m (1,671 ft) it is still considerably shorter than Shanghai’s tallest towers.
Unlike those, however, it has impressive views of the neighboring mountains.
One of the building’s claims to fame is its tuned mass damper, a huge sphere used to counteract the stress of high winds on the structure.
Always quick to out Japanese the Japanese with kawaii, kids are supposed to find the damper interesting because of the Damper Babies!
Each damper has it’s own color scheme, personality, and (still more Japanese) blood type. They designed “101” into the characters with the vertical slit eyes and horrifying mouth.
I placed my hand on this one and tooks its soul. 
From the indoor observatory, I ventured up the stairs to the outside observatory.
This Refugee Room did not bode well. What was it for, daikaiju attacks? 
Looking up at the top of the building from the outdoor observatory deck…
…and then out toward the west. 
In one of the strangest “exit through the gift shop” designs I’ve ever seen, the observatory exit lead directly to a high end boutique selling giant statues carved out of coral.
Although impressive, I couldn’t help but find the whole thing a bit of an ecological horror show. 