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Location: The western periphery of Terra Australis
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The only tall building of note is Taipei 101!
Taiwan is a modern, dynamic nation - one of the four 'Asian tigers', while it's capital, Taipei, is a sizable, cosmopolitan city with over 2 million and a metro area of 6.5 million, which makes it actually larger than Singapore and almost as big as Hong Kong.
Yet as you can see, Taipei barely even HAS a skyline in the conventional sense of the word! Is it height restrictions due to a nearby airport/earthquakes/typhoons? Bad feng shui? I just think it's got one of the worst skylines of any major city in East Asia, scarcely better than say Hanoi.
Taiwan is a modern, dynamic nation - one of the four 'Asian tigers', while it's capital, Taipei, is a sizable, cosmopolitan city with over 2 million and a metro area of 6.5 million, which makes it actually larger than Singapore and almost as big as Hong Kong.
Yet as you can see, Taipei barely even HAS a skyline in the conventional sense of the word! Is it height restrictions due to a nearby airport/earthquakes/typhoons? Bad feng shui? I just think it's got one of the worst skylines of any major city in East Asia, scarcely better than say Hanoi.
The picture is not representative of fact. Taipei has two huge office towers, the 101 being the largest (and the 2nd tallest building in the world). The other (not pictured) is near the train station and the old city center. These two buildings, the towering condominiums along the river, the hilltop Grand Hotel (largest Chinese-style roofline in the world) several interesting bridges, and the huge ferris wheel in a new mega-mall give Taipei a better skyline than most cities in the region. Plus the ringing misty mountain ranges.
The best place to view the Taipei skyline is from the balconies of the aformentioned Grand Hotel near the Shilin Night market. You can see all the major sights on a clear day/night as well as regional jets landing at the airport in the middle of the city. Another good spot is from the Maokong Gondola or the tea houses on the mountain it climbs.
International flights all come in through Taoyuan now, where the metro rail is being extended, and they are trying to reduce the number of planes that fly directly into the city, so I don't think flight paths much restrict the city's vertical growth.
Earthquakes pose a major challenge to building skyscrapers, as do typhoons, but to say Taipei's skyline is comparable to Hanoi's is false. Have you been to both cities in the past decade?
Taipei probably doesn't match Shanghai, or HK's waterfront. It's certainly not as vertical as the monoliths of Beijing or the clusters of Tokyo. I'd score it near or above Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur; a dense metropolis with a few scattered super-skyscrapers and a variety of other towers and large structures.
Location: The western periphery of Terra Australis
24,606 posts, read 55,813,394 times
Reputation: 11862
I did an image search for 'Taipei skyline' in google and all the pictures were similar - the only tall building being Taipei 101, with a lot of much shorter buildings. Taipei in no way compares to KL in terms of it's skyline. Bangkok is an ugly jumble of buildings but has far more height than Taipei. Taipei might be a great city regardless, but it just doesn't really have much of a skyline.
Taipei has an unimpressive skyline because it is such an earthquake prone city.
With the exception of the 101 and a few other 20+ story office buildings, most of the apartments and other buildings in the cities are not taller than 6 stories.
Again, due to the fact that it is such an earthquake prone city.
If you visit the 101, you will see they went to great lengths to sustain an earthquake when building that amazing tower.
look at comparably sized cities in other parts of developed asia. like nagoya and busan. none of particularly memorable skylines. hk is the exception and singapore is vastly overrated.
Location: The western periphery of Terra Australis
24,606 posts, read 55,813,394 times
Reputation: 11862
Quote:
Originally Posted by foadi
look at comparably sized cities in other parts of developed asia. like nagoya and busan. none of particularly memorable skylines. hk is the exception and singapore is vastly overrated.
I wish this stupid race to build the tallest finally comes to an end, as it's messed up any number of skylines, including Shanghai! Let's hope someone finally builds a mile high skyscraper some day and that finally puts an end to this madness!
Taipei couldn't resist the temptation to build the highest, not knowing full-well someone was going to come along and top it? Now there's a city in China which is going to build a tower higher than the highest in Dubai! To create one more messed-up skyline!
Back in the early 70's, Minneapolis built the tallest tower west of Chicago, the IDS Tower, dwarfing every building downtown, and it stood there for over a decade sticking out like a sore thumb, until later, it got two companion towers.
But this 101 in Taipei will probably never get any companions!
The 101 is a landmark. How does it mess up the skyline? It's a fun area to visit, next to the convention center, city hall, shopping malls, and downtown park. When we're in town, we almost always take the MRT there and spend a few hours wandering around.
The view from the observation deck is great on clear days, and there's a tea house near the top floor which isn't too expensive--except for the cost of the ride up. It's fun to step in the elevator and, 10 seconds later, after the pretty attendant has announced arriving at the top floor in 3 languages, step out on top of the world. The elevator is so fast and smooth it's a surreal experience.
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