The building contains 101 floors above ground and 5 floors underground. Its postmodern style combines both Asian and international modern and traditional elements. Its safety features enable it to withstand typhoons and earthquakes. A multi-level shopping mall adjoining the tower houses hundreds of fashionable stores, restaurants and clubs. Fireworks launched from Taipei 101 feature prominently in international New Year's Eve broadcasts, and the landmark appears frequently in films, television shows, print publications, anime media, games, and other elements of popular culture.
The name of the tower reflects its location in Taipei's international business district (101 mailing code) as well as its floor count.The number is pronounced in English simply as One Oh One and in Mandarin and other local languages by the equivalent.
Taipei 101 is owned by the Taipei Financial Center Corporation and managed by the International division of Urban Retail Properties Corporation based in Chicago. The name originally planned for the building, TaipeiWorldFinancialCenter, was derived from the name of the owner. The original name in Chinese was literally, Taipei International Financial Center.
Taipei 101 was overtaken in height on July 21, 2007 by the Burj Dubai in Dubai, UAE, upon the completion of that building's 141st floor. The title of "world's tallest building" still rests with Taipei 101, though, as international architectural standards define a "building" as a structure capable of being fully occupied. The Burj Dubai is on course to claim the title once its construction is finished, expected in September 2009.
Taipei 101 is designed to withstand the typhoon winds and earthquake tremors common in its area of the Asia-Pacific. Planners aimed for a structure that could withstand gale winds of 60 m (197 ft) per second (216 km/h, 134 mi/h) and the strongest earthquakes likely to occur in a 2,500 year cycle.
Skyscrapers must be flexible in strong winds yet remain rigid enough to prevent large sideways movement (lateral drift). Flexibility prevents structural damage while resistance ensures comfort for the occupants and protection of glass, curtain walls and other features. Most designs achieve the necessary strength by enlarging critical structural elements such as bracing. The extraordinary height of Taipei 101 combined with the demands of its environment called for additional innovations on the part of engineers.
The design achieves both strength and flexibility for the tower through the use of high-performance steel construction. Thirty-six columns support Taipei 101, including eight "mega-columns" packed with 10,000-psi concrete. Every eight floors, outrigger trusses connect the columns in the building’s core to those on the exterior.
These features combine with the solidity of its foundation to make Taipei 101 one of the most stable buildings ever constructed. The foundation is reinforced by 380 piles driven 80 m (262 ft) into the ground, extending as far as 30 m (98 ft) into the bedrock. Each pile is 1.5 m (5 ft) in diameter and can bear a load of 1,000 metric tons (1,100 short tons) - 1,320 metric tons (1,460 short tons).The stability of the design became evident during construction when, on March 31 2002, a 6.8-magnitude earthquake rocked Taipei. The tremor was strong enough to topple two construction cranes from the 56th floor, then the highest, and killed five people in the accident. An inspection afterwards showed no structural damage to the building and construction soon resumed.
Thornton-Tomasetti Engineers along with Evergreen Consulting Engineering designed a 660 metric tons (728 short tons) steel pendulum that serves as a tuned mass damper, at a cost of NT$132 million (US$4 million). Suspended from the 92nd to the 88th floor, the pendulum sways to offset movements in the building caused by strong gusts. Its sphere, the largest damper sphere in the world, consists of 41 circular steel plates, each with a height of 125 mm (0.41 ft) being welded together to form a 5.5 m (18 ft) diameter sphere.Another two tuned mass dampers, each weighing 6 metric tons (7 short tons), sit at the tip of the spire. These prevent damage to the structure due to strong wind loads.
Taipei 101's characteristic blue-green glass curtain walls are double glazed, offer heat and UV protection, and can sustain impacts of 7 metric tons (8 short tons).
Taipei 101, like all spire structures, participates in the symbolism of the axis mundi: a world center where earth and sky meet and the four compass directions join.
The height of 101 floors commemorates the renewal of time: the new century that arrived as the tower was built (100+1) and all the new years that follow (January 1 = 1-01). It symbolizes high ideals by going one better on 100, a traditional number of perfection. It represents the spot where the tower stands: 101 is the postal code of Taipei's international business district. The number also evokes the binary numeral system used in digital technology.
The main tower features a series of eight segments of eight floors each. In Chinese-speaking cultures the number eight is associated with abundance, prosperity and good fortune. In cultures that observe a seven-day week the number eight symbolizes a renewal of time (7+1). In digital technology the number eight is associated with the byte, the basic unit of information.
The repeated segments simultaneously recall the rhythms of an Asian pagoda (a tower linking earth and sky, also evoked in the Petronas Towers), a stalk of bamboo (an icon of learning and growth), and a stack of ancient Chinese ingots or money boxes (a symbol of abundance). The four discs mounted on each face of the building where the pedestal meets the tower represent coins. The emblem placed over entrances shows three gold coins of ancient design with central holes shaped to imply the Arabic numerals1-0-1.
Curled ruyi figures appear throughout the structure as a design motif. The ruyi, is an ancient symbol associated with heavenly clouds. It connotes healing, protection and fulfilment. It appears in celebrations of the attainment of new career heights.Each ruyi ornament on the exterior of the Taipei 101 tower stands at least 8 m (26 ft) tall. The sweeping curved roof of the adjoining mall culminates in a colossal ruyi that shades pedestrians. Though the shape of each ruyi at Taipei 101 is traditional, its metallic interpretation is plainly modern.
At night the bright yellow gleam from its pinnacle casts Taipei101 in the role of a candle or torch upholding the ideals of liberty and welcome. From 6:00 to 10:00 each evening the tower's lights display one of seven colours in the spectrum. The colours coincide with the days of the week:
Day
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday
Colour
The cycle through the spectrum connects the tower with the rich symbolism of rainbows, traditionally seen as bridges linking earth to sky and earth's peoples to one another.
A further connection with time appears in an adjoining park, where a clock draws its energy entirely from the building's wind shear. The circular shape of the clock is echoed in the shape of the park itself.
Taipei 101, like many of its neighbours, shows the influence of feng shui philosophy. An example appears at the intersection of Songlian Road and Hsinyi (Xinyi) Road, where a large fountain stands near the tower's east entrance.A ball at the top spins toward the tower. The fountain may be viewed as a work of public art. Its stone and liquid textures offer a contrast to the glass and metal of the building even as its horizontal ridges repeat the building's rhythms. Yet, in feng shui terms, the fountain serves a practical function, though, . A T intersection near the entrance of a building drains positive energy, or ch'i, from a building and its occupants. Flowing water placed at such a spot can remedy the situation by generating a positive inward flow of ch'i. At Taipei101 a traditional predicament has been addressed with a traditional solution--yet the result looks modern.
Taipei 101 merges ancient motifs and ideas with modern techniques and materials. As a landmark it renews the symbolism of all tall towers as cosmic centers. Its interplaying symbols convey images of optimism, abundance, and awareness of the cycles of time.
The National Palace Museum is an art museum in Taipei City, Republic of China, in northern Taiwan. It has a permanent collection of over 650,000 pieces of ancient Chinese artifacts and artworks, making it one of the largest in the world. Most of the collection are high quality pieces collected by China's ancient emperors.
The National Palace Museum should not be confused with the Palace Museum (note the absence of the word "National"), located inside the Forbidden City in Beijing, capital of the People's Republic of China. Both institutions share the same original roots, which was split in two as a result of the Chinese Civil War.
History
The NationalPalaceMuseum was first established as the PalaceMuseum in Beijing on October 10, 1925, shortly after the expulsion of Puyi, the last emperor of China, from the Forbidden City by warlord Feng Yü-hsiang. The articles in the museum consisted of the valuables of the former Imperial family and were moved from place to place in the 1930s and 1940s to prevent them from falling into the hands of the Imperial Japanese Army.
During the final years of the Chinese Civil War, the museum essential works collections were selected for removal, under the orders of General Chiang Kai-shek, from Beijing's Forbidden City to Taiwan.With the victory of the Communists, the NationalPalaceMuseum was split into two (the part on the mainland, like all other such institutions, lost its "National" designation). The part in mainland China is centered on the Forbidden City.
During the 1960s and 1970s, the NationalPalaceMuseum was used by the Kuomintang to support its claim that the Republic of China was the sole legitimate government of all of China, in that it was the sole preserver of traditional Chinese culture amid the social change and Cultural Revolution in mainland China, and tended to emphasize Chinese nationalism. In recent years, the museum has focused more on local and minority cultures and has included some materials on loan from the People's Republic of China.
In English, the institution in Taipei is distinguished from the one in Beijing by the additional "National" designation. In common usage in Chinese, the institution in Taipei is known as the "TaipeiGugong", while that in Beijing is known as the "BeijingGugong".
The NationalPalaceMuseum has also been controversial in Taiwan with many supporters of Taiwan independence regarding it as an unwanted symbol of China-centeredness.
Construction
The NationalPalaceMuseum building in Taipei was constructed on March 1964 and was completed in August of 1965. Due to the insufficient space to put on display over 655,707 artifacts, the museum underwent renovations in 1967, 1970, and 1996. The museum reopened on Christmas Day 2006, after a long ten years renovation. It was accelerated in 2002, during this renovation period about two-thirds of the museum section was closed. The displays are rotated once every three months, which means 60,000 pieces can be viewed in a year and it would take nearly 12 years to see them all
Vocabularies
1.Arbiter - a person who has the sole or absolute power of judging or determining.
2.Hail - to cheer, salute, or greet; welcome
3.Wonder - the emotion excited by what is strange and surprising; a feeling of surprised or puzzled interest, sometimes tinged with admiration:
4.Damper - an attachment to keep the indicator of a measuring instrument from oscillating excessively, as a set of vanes in a fluid or a short-circuited winding in a magnetic field.
5.Tremor - an attachment to keep the indicator of a measuring instrument from oscillating excessively, as a set of vanes in a fluid or a short-circuited winding in a magnetic field.
6.Gale - a very strong wind.
7.Skyscraper - a building of exceptional height completely supported by a framework, as of girders, from which the walls are suspended, as opposed to a building supported by load-bearing walls.
8.Spire - a tall, acutely pointed pyramidal roof or rooflike construction upon a tower, roof, etc
9.Gleam - a tall, acutely pointed pyramidal roof or rooflike construction upon a tower, roof, etc
10.Pinnacle - a relatively small, upright structure, commonly terminating in a gable, a pyramid, or a cone, rising above the roof or coping of a building, or capping a tower, buttress, or other projecting architectural member
Activities
1.Tell your partner about one of the two places
2.Tell the class about the place what your partner told you
3.If there are visitors coming to Taipei, where will you take them in Taipei?
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