Interesting Cities - Taipei

When your city is home to the tallest building on Earth – Taipei 101 Tower – you will naturally look for every opportunity to use this impressive symbol of your technological and engineering prowess.

One very effective way of doing so is to mount a spectacular fireworks display from top to bottom of the skyscraper’s formidable structure to welcome the start of a New Year. The breathtaking result is guaranteed to be screened around the world, along with other ambitious displays from New York, Sydney and London, putting Taipei firmly on the map as one of the most exciting cities.

G4S Security Services protecting Taipei 101 Tower

For the G4S Security Services (Taiwan) team working round-theclock to protect Taipei 101 Tower, the fireworks extravaganza added additional responsibilities to their patrol and access control duties.

Five additional officers were drafted in on 31 December to assist their colleagues in restricting access to the building and supervising control of electrical power.

As well as being the tallest, Taipei 101 Tower – which gets its name from the number of aboveground floors – is also the most technologically-advanced skyscraper so far constructed. In fact, it has so many claims to fame that it’s difficult to know where to start.

For example, it is equipped with fibre-optic and satellite Internet connections which allow connection speeds of up to one gigabit a second.

Also known as Taipei Financial Centre, the skyscraper’s two doubledecker lifts are the world’s fastest, taking visitors to an 89th floor indoor observatory in under 39 seconds.

Those who wish to enjoy the Taipei vista from an even greater height, as well as experiencing the view in the open air, can use a staircase to reach the outside observatory two floors higher.

It is the observation areas, which receive 25,000 paying visitors a month, that receive most attention from the G4S security officers fulfilling this premium contract.

Confirming Taipei’s technological advances, the New York-based Intelligent Community Forum (ICF) – a non-profit think tank that focuses on job creation and economic development in the broadband economy – voted it the top cyber city on the planet in 2006, out of seven finalists. Singled out for special mention was the extent of its wi-fi (wireless) broadband access, which now covers at least 90 per cent of the capital, including its Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) stations.

With this focus of harnessing technology for the future benefit of its inhabitants, it is no surprise that most major manufacturers are based in or around the city. Among those for whom G4S Security Services provide protection in a variety of forms are AU Optronics, the world’s third largest maker of liquid-crystal displays; Quanta Computer Inc, the world’s biggest notebook-computer maker; and BenQ, a world leader in the design, manufacture and marketing of IT lifestyle devices.

National Centre for Traditional Arts

Of course, there are times when people prefer to get away from the bustle of this exciting metropolis and enjoy the peace and beauty of other Taiwanese cities, such as beautiful Yilan, on the north-east coast of Taiwan. And it is there, in response to concerns that modern civilization is eroding the country’s cultural legacy, that the newly-created National Centre for Traditional Arts (NCFTA) has been established. This 24-hectare development on the banks of the Dongshan River is attracting large numbers of visitors since it opened in 2002.

And though the surroundings are very different to the 91st floor observatory of the Taipei 101 Tower, you will still find G4S Security Services paying close attention to the needs of NCFTA’s visitors as well as providing cash collection and delivery services.

The cultural centre consists of an exhibition centre, 420-seat theatre, 150-seat experimental theatre, historic buildings and various other attractions which, as well as thousands of day visitors and students on courses, are kept under the watchful eyes of G4S security officers.

Travelling to the NCFTA from Taipei used to be a daunting journey, but once again engineering ingenuity has come to Taiwan’s rescue. The new Taipei-Yilan Expressway, with its 11 tunnels driven through mountains, and a variety of viaducts and bridges crossing rivers and flood plains, has reduced the drive to an hour – half the previous time. Opening up that route involved excavating the world’s fourth longest tunnel, Syueshan, running 12.9 kilometres through the Snow Mountains. Traffic began using the tunnel in June 2006. And for an East Asian country with a population of 23 million, such developments – whether the tallest, longest or fastest – are not only exciting but also essential

This page is an edited version of the article featured in the March 2007 edition of International.
Download the full article: application/pdf