Day 22: Taipei 101 and Shida Night Market

I've been waiting to visit Taipei 101 for weeks, so today was an exciting day! Taipei 101 is currently the second tallest building in the world - second only to Burj Khalifa in Dubai, which opened in 2010. Taipei 101 stands 101 stories tall and was completed in 2004.

Taipei 101 in the background - 101 stories tall!



The building displays many elements of traditional Chinese architecture and much of it is symbolic, reprenting pagodas and bamboos and The main tower features a series of eight segments of eight floors each. In Chinese-speaking cultures the number eight is associated with prosperity and good fortune.

We took a trip up to the 89th floor of the building to the indoor observatory. The elevator holds the World Record for the fastest elevator, it takes you to the 89th-floor observatory in only 37 seconds! My ears popped on the way up and when I got there, I felt pretty woosy and disoriented. I quickly got a hold of myself because the views fromt the observation deck were awesome! My pictures do not do it justice.

The views from the top were incredible! Everything looks so tiny



Another one of our stops that day included the Hello Kitty Sweet shop. They love their Hello Kitty here too and even built a store and bakery for it. Although we didn't eat here, I grabbed a quick shot outside. Jacki #1 and I contemplated coming back with Hello Kitty iPhone cases, but decided we didn't like it that much!



That night, Jacki and I met my mom up for a walk over to the Shida Night Market.  We had some udon noodle soup and a few snacks.  Shida is famous for it's street food and clothing vendors - you can see some of the Taiwanese fashion (both good and bad!) by stopping to look at the stores in Shida.

We discovered one of our now favorite Taiwanese snacks on the way to Shida.  We saw a long line of customoers waiting for Taiwanese pan-fried pancakes filled with onion and turnips.  As Jacki always says, "a long line means it's gotta be good."

Taiwanese fried pancake