I would like to introduce my home country, Taiwan, a small
island in East Asia. She is located at south of Japan and Korea, and north of Philippines.
23 million citizens are currently living in Taiwan; most people live in modern
urban cities. The biggest city is our capital city, Taipei, which has more than
three million citizens and becomes one of the cities with highest population
density. The second highest skyscraper, Taipei 101 is also located there.
Taiwan also has variant landscapes from beach to high
mountains. As many tropical islands, Taiwan owns many beautiful beaches and
attractive diving spots. Thousands of tourists crowd into Kenting, Fulong, or
Green lsland every summer. Besides, the small island also has the highest
mountain in East Asia, Jade Mountain. You would discover awesome sea of cloud
and sun rise views on the trails of Jade Mountain (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4e/YushanSunRiseSqlHeng.jpg).
“Components. American components, Russian Components, ALL
MADE IN TAIWAN!“ This line comes from movie Armageddon.
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIh78GiTqrE)
It’s true that Taiwan is famed for excellent computer industries. ASUS, Acer, and
HTC who produces laptops or smart phones are Taiwanese corporations. Furthermore,
most of the computers on markets contain IC parts made in Taiwan. The only
thing wrong in the movie is that you don’t have to knock your computer with
wrench when it doesn’t respond.
Biomedical science in Taiwan is also illustrious. Taiwan has
leaded the research in hepatitis for many years. Recently, researches in
traditional Chinese medicines, allergic diseases, and protein glycosylation are
continually published on international journals. Although research resource in
Taiwan hardly competes with United States, brilliant researchers are still
trying their best to resolve unanswered questions.
Next time when you want to find a place for travel,
consuming low-priced computers, or finding cooperators in researches, let
Taiwan be your candidate.
Taipei 101 is a very interesting building. Because it is constructed in an active earthquake area where they also get typhoons (Pacific tropical storms), Taipei 101 has a tuned mass damper at the top of the building. The tuned mass damper is like a giant pendulum weighing 660 tonnes and is suspended from the 92 floor. This giant pendulum swings to offset the movement of the building as a result of strong gusts. As a result, Taipei 101 is designed to sustain gust of up to 134 miles/hour and has already survived a 6.8 magnitude earthquake with no structural damage, which took place before construction was complete. In addition, Taipei 101 has a couple more much smaller (6 tonne) mass dampers to maintain the spire. I find it truly amazing what modern engineering can accomplish, and I believe the Taiwanese really sent a message to the world that did not receive the publicity they hoped for when they constructed what was the tallest building in the world from 2004-2010 (when it was replaced by the Burj Khalifa, thats right Dan, like Wiz Khalifa). Finally, not only did Taiwan complete and engineering marvel of the modern world, Taipei 101 is also LEED certified (just like the CARE building, it cares about the environment).
ReplyDeleteI'm wondering if you read this information from wiki, because even I couldn't remember this detailed about the anti-earthquake system they have in TPE 101. And not to mention that I've been to the building and seen the pendulum swing in person, lol. I think TPE 101 is really the landmark representing Taiwan to the world, despite the fact that it's no longer the tallest building in the world. I would say, for people in Taiwan, it's not the name of "the tallest building in the world" that matters to us, it's the "symbol of Taiwan" that we want the world to know!
Deletewowo amazing, it is very nice to know about Taiwan. I rely would like to visit the east Asian countries, I believe that it will be a great experience to explore a new theme of our beautiful world.
ReplyDeleteBy the way,as Rahul mentioned burj Khalifa, it is my profile photo.
Kun-Po, I'm also trying hard to persuade people to visit Taiwan when they have time, but in another way... :p, like telling people the various kind of food that we have in night market and how tasty they are, or how much fun you can get from the night life we have and the hot girls we can see, lol. I guess next time we should go as a group that you tell people about the beautiful scene and me talking about the fun entertainment, I really think that would work ;)
ReplyDeleteI did get some of the facts about Taipei 101 from wiki but I remember reading about the massive pendulum in popular mechanics years ago when I was in high school and they were building it.
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