When Taipei 101 first opened, it was the tallest building in the world: the first to soar more than a third of a mile into the sky. Less than five years later, its 101 stories were eclipsed by the Burj Khalifa’s height of half a mile. As of March 2026, Taipei 101 is now (just) the eleventh tallest building on the planet.
Even so, it’s a lot of fun to roam its pristine hyper-luxury mall packed with brands so expensive, it’s like they’re trying to make up in price what Taipei 101 now lacks in height. We didn’t buy anything here, but we did ride the world’s fastest elevator straight to the top for a God’s-eye view of Taipei, Taiwan.
That huge golden ball you see is one of the building’s stabilizers. When a skyscraper rises beyond a certain height, it resonates and sways with the wind. A tower without stabilization could easily be swayed back and forth several meters in high winds … but when you have a sphere like this 600-ton steel ball hanging freely in the center, its inertia can absorb a lot of that kinetic energy.
The result? While I did feel a little bit of movement at the tip top (our Monday visit was on a very windy day), the building felt mostly stable. Mostly.
