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Taipei's symbol of success -- and excess

One of the cars that were damaged when pieces of metal debris were blown off the Taipei 101 building on Friday. PHOTO: CHIEN JUNG-FENG, TAIPEI TIMES

More than one million pilgrims from across the country have visited the Taipei 101 Mall since its opening on Nov.14. The world's tallest skyscraper has been characterized as much by its excesses as its successes.

In a sense, this 509m high, 101-story tower, which includes a shopping mall, office space and an observatory, represents Taiwan's economic success and its pursuit of modernization.

President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) described it as a "symbol of Taiwan's progress and prosperity" at the opening ceremony. Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said that the building represents "Taiwan's identity and world-class quality."

Building towering skyscrapers has almost become a thing of the past in western countries since the Sept. 11 attacks, but the trend has been reversed in Asia, which is home to the world's tallest skyscrapers. Six of the world's ten tallest buildings are located in Asia, and more will be built.

High-rise buildings like the Taipei 101 Mall represent the ideals of Taiwanese and of people in other Asian countries, where skyscrapers are a relatively new sight compared to western countries, said Yeh Ting-fen (葉庭芬), a PhD student of environmental planning at Tokyo University. "It fulfils people's longings emotionally and represents their desire to get on in the world."

Political commentator Poe Ta-chung (卜大中) said the building represents an attempt to call the world's attention to Taiwan's rising presence in global economics and politics.

"The completion of the Taipei 101 Mall is like a heart stimulant to Taiwan's people, who have been suffering from the economic recession. It provides an escape for the public," Poe said.

"Seeing a pile of merchandise and finery in this grandiose shopping mall, the public experiences an illusionary happiness, which is a kind of psychological therapy to them," Poe said.

Although officials have boasted that the skyscraper conforms to world-class quality standards and offers a safe environment, a spate of construction accidents at the mall have raised questions about whether the city and the developer can afford the prestige that the world's tallest building brings.

On Friday pieces of metal fell from the 91st floor of the office tower onto the ground around the building, injuring four people.

The public have risked their lives to shop in the mall while the office tower adjacent to it is still under construction.

The tower will be topped in March next year, but the mall has already been opened.

Ma, who kept saying that the city government adhered to the strictest standards in the construction of the skyscraper, has cited the construction law in the city council, saying that there was no law against allowing an unfinished structure to conduct business.

But Friday's accident was not the first.

Several accidents have occurred during the building's construction. Two cranes dropped from the 56th floor in an earthquake on March 31 last year, killing five people and injuring 10. The roof of the shopping mall caught fire twice during the construction, and the escalator of the office tower caught fire in January.

The Taipei 101 Mall has been constructed under a build-operate-transfer (BOT) formula, in which private investors are involved in the construction and operation together with the government. The Taipei City Government rents the land to the investors and has helped eliminate problems during construction.

Fingers have been pointed at the city government, who is playing a dual role as a supervisor and part-owner of the skyscraper.

Chen Wei-jen (陳威仁), head of the city's Public Works Bureau, who said the developer's crisis management was "sleeping."

Chen had ordered construction work on the office tower to a halt before the developer, who kept apologizing to the public and the city government, suggested a complete construction plan to the city government.
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