John Holdsworth & Co Ltd - Photographs 2006
 

The Grand Hotel, Taitei, built in 1973, is a famous landmark located atop a hill overlooking Taipei City, Taiwan, Republic of China.
The hotel's roof is currently the world's largest Chinese classical style roof. With its vermilion columns, the roof makes the hotel a visible showplace of Chinese architecture and culture. The hotel itself contains numerous objects d'art, wall panels, paintings, carvings, and significant restaurants. Dragon motifs are frequently intertwined throughout the various structures that make up the hotel, earning the hotel the name "The Dragon Palace". Beside dragons, lion and ume flower motifs also make a significant presence in the hotel.
Each of the eight guest levels represent a different Chinese dynasty, as reflected through the murals and general decor. The hotel has a total of 490 rooms. The rooms facing south offer a paranomic view of Taipei City. The presidential suite, has former President Chiang Kai-shek's desk and Madame Chiang's dressing table.

After travelling back to Taipei from Chang-Hwa City, we had just enough daylight left to take these photographs outside the Taipei 101, before going inside to enjoy a Tapanyaki meal with Caruso Chen and Scott Pan. (Caruso was no relation to Mrs Amy Chen, factory manager.) Afterwards we ascended in the breathtakingly fast lift to the observation floor, where is was difficult to get any good photographs due to the dark outside, and the reflections inside.
Here are some of the pictures that I took, including the night views.

Taipei 101 is currently the world's tallest completed building on earth with its 509 m height. It is located in the East of Taipei (Xin-Yi district), the capital city of Taiwan. The tower consists of 101 stories above the ground. The top floor is at 439 m. The construction of Taipei 101 was started in 1999, and finished in 2004. The total cost was about 1,7 billion US dollars. This tower has the worlds fastest elevators (doubledecker) they can get as fast as 63 km / h. The indoor observation deck is on the 89th floor (382m). The total weight of Taipei 101 is 700,000 tonnes. The structure is able to withstand the largest earthquakes. The 800 ton damper on the top of the tower can reduce up to 40% of the movement. The Taipei 101 Mall is a 6-story shopping mall inside the building.
The former tallest building was the Petronas Towers in Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur with 452 m height, which only held the record for 6 years (built in 1998). I visited the Petronas Towers and the KL Tower in February 2007.
The upcoming world's tallest is going to be the Burj Dubai, which has already overtaken Taipei 101, but until its finished it is not official. Exact height is unknown, but Emaar, the constructor company said it is going to be over 800m. The current plans indicate Burj Dubai at 818m. Most probably it will be finished by 2009.