World's tallest building opens for business in Taiwan

TAIWAN’S capital opened the world’s tallest building yesterday, a 101-storey tower built to withstand major tremors and storms on the earthquake and typhoon-prone island.

The skyscraper of steel, concrete and glass in Taipei houses a shopping mall and offices for 12,000 people.

Braving the winter drizzle, Chen Shui-bian, the country’s president, cut the ribbon for the grand opening of the 1,667ft tower and took the world’s fastest lift to the 89th-floor observatory.

The building took six years to complete and is designed to absorb earthquakes above factor seven on the Richter scale and one-in-100-year storms.

Taiwan lies on a seismically active stretch of the Pacific basin and is frequently hit by typhoons. In September 1999, the country was struck by an earthquake measuring 7.6 on the Richter scale, killing more than 2,400 people and destroying or damaging around 50,000 buildings.

The shopping mall at the base of the building opened for business last year and is usually packed with shoppers at weekends.