When it was completed in 2004, its height of 508 m suppressed the Petronas Tower in Malaysia as the world's highest architectural structure (spire). That record held until the opening of Burj Khalifa in Dubai in 2010. Designing the structure of tall buildings in earthquake prone Taiwan is not easy.
On the day we visited, it was drizzling with low clouds. Because of the poor visibility, we did not want to pay the NT$500 (US$17) ticket for the observation deck. Instead we tour the 5-floor upscale shopping mall.