CNN Ranks World’s 25 Greatest Skyscrapers, Taipei 101 Makes the List

▲ Taipei 101 is listed among the world’s 25 greatest skyscrapers. (Photo / Provided by Taipei Tourism Bureau)

Travel Center / Comprehensive Report

The website of American news network CNN selected the world’s 25 greatest skyscrapers on the 6th, including Taipei 101.

According to the CNN report, the selection of these 25 greatest skyscrapers doesn’t include only the tallest buildings, nor are they necessarily the most successful ones, but they are the most iconic, highly designed, and symbolic structures of their cities. And Taipei 101 was unsurprisingly among those chosen.

CNN pointed out that the Taipei 101, with a total construction cost of $1.8 billion, was completed in 2004, standing at 508 meters tall — the first building in the world to surpass 500 meters in height — and held the record as the tallest skyscraper globally until 2009; meanwhile, its elevators can reach speeds of up to 1,010 meters per minute, taking just 37 seconds to go from the 5th floor to the top, making them the fastest elevators in the world at that time.

Currently, the tallest building in the world is the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, but CNN reported that the Changsha Sky City project in China is expected to be completed in April 2014. Once finished, the Changsha Sky City will stand at 838 meters, replacing the Burj Khalifa as the world’s tallest skyscraper.

Other selected landmarks include New York’s Empire State Building, Chrysler Building, and One World Trade Center; London’s Lloyd’s Building and The Shard; Beijing’s CCTV Headquarters and Shanghai’s World Financial Center in China; Hong Kong’s International Finance Centre and Bank of China Tower; Bangkok’s Elephant Tower in Thailand; the Commerzbank Tower in Frankfurt, Germany; Vietnam’s tallest financial building in Ho Chi Minh City; and Pyongyang’s Ryugyong Hotel in North Korea.

Also selected were the Transamerica Pyramid in San Francisco, USA; the Kingdom Centre in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; the Mode Gakuen Cocoon Tower in Tokyo, Japan; the Grand Lisboa in Macau; the Bahrain World Trade Center in Bahrain; the Burj Al Arab in the United Arab Emirates; the Burj Khalifa in Dubai; the Torre Glòries in Barcelona, Spain; the HSB Turning Torso in Sweden; and the Marina Bay Sands in Singapore.