Taipei 101

On a recent business trip to Taiwan I hada brief chance to play tourist and check out the 'Taipei 101' tower. It's currently the world's tallest building, at least until Dubai's 'Burj Al Dubai' blows its doors off with an incredible 160 habitable floors. It was indeed incredible to be that high up in the air, but Asia has blunted my enjoyment of tall buildings. I find that above 70 floors I tend to experience diminishing returns of entertainment.

Way cooler than the buildings sheer height was that the elevator that whisks you to the observation deck moves at almost 40mph, a world record. The elevator attendant reminds you to clear your ears about midway up/down so your head doesn't explode.

Even cooler than the turbo elevators is the buildings gigantic 'tuned mass damper' which dangles from the 92nd floor. It looks like some sort of evil world-ending explosive from a James Bond movie, but is actually a 650 steel pendulum which counteracts the effects of earthquakes and high winds to stabilize the building.

It's got all the symbolism and feng shui correctness you'd expect from a building in Asia. And yes, it has also been conquered by French Spiderman and friend of Ingrid, Alain Robert. He scaled it in just over 4 hours.