I visited the tallest building in the world, "Taipei 101" back in the spring of 2005 during a trip around Asia. It was pretty slick, although it will soon be surpassed by a series of even taller buildings in South Korea, China, and Dubai (see Philip Nobel's "Lust for Height" at American.com). For Taiwan, besides national pride, the tower was another symbol of the country's modernity and technological capacity. But I found something interesting today, as I was going through some memorabilia from that trip. I was looking at the brochure from "Taipei 101" and I noticed the following line in the section with visitor information:
"TAIPEI 101 Observatory is a non-smoking area. Betel nuts and chewing gums are also not permitted."
You can also see this on the "Taipei 101" website. It's a wonderful example of the intersection between relics of the old agrarian lifestyle that live on (lots of Taiwan truckers and taxi drivers chew betel nut) and modern standards of cleanliness and rigidity...
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