Taipei 101

We have looked from a far at this landmark building almost everyday since we arrived in Taipei.  The building is called "Taipei 101", because it has 101 floors.  It was the tallest building in the world when it was completed in 2004 at 509 m, until Dubai built one at 819 m in 2009. Finally, we were able to venture inside. We did not ride one of the fastest elevators in the world to the top, because there were a few clouds in the sky and we will go again on a clearer day. So we explored the very expensive shops that are on the first 5 floors.

Looks like a normal mall, but by very expensive....I mean the prices were over the top.  Tiffany's was probably the least expensive jewelry store we visited; for example in one jewelry store Bob asked the price of a watch which was 5,240,000 NT($178,000 US), and it did not have any diamonds. It looked nice, but not extraordinary.  Now, I am building you up for the big contrast in the next picture of a jewelry store.  

We went to the largest night market in the city and this jewelry store was open for business with 2 scooters parked at the front door.  The plastic bags probably belonged to the scooter drivers, who had not yet set up their items for sale at the night market. Most likely they would display their goods in front of the jewelry store, and the store would remain open.  This was about 7 pm, and not a poor area, nor was the jewelry store cheap.  This is just Taiwan where strange things are acceptable in the business world.  By the way, we are sure we were 3 or 4 times older than anyone else at the Shilin Night Market which opens a dusk.  We went home at 9 pm and we did not see one thing we wanted to buy.