The second-tallest building in the world (and the tallest in China) is the 632-metre-high Shanghai Tower. It soar up with the other two buildings in the Lujiazui area of the east bank of the Huangpu River, the Shanghai World Financial Center and the Jin Mao Tower. There is a couple of floors above the observatory that you can visit too and plenty more of interest along the way.
Tickets are about 180 yuan for adults (slightly cheaper if booked in advance online). Allow a couple of hours to do it all. You will need more time if you dawdle and less if you are efficient.
This involve queuing, going through security, then taking the world’s fastest lift to the top.
What to See at the Top
Shanghai Tower
The tour begin with an exhibit hall downstairs that has screens and displays explaining how the tower was built and designed. It’s all rather shiny promotional material on the engineering and green credentials of building. From there you head down the corridor towards the lifts.
This is as much for crowd control as anything, an early morning or late afternoon time-slot will get you some breathing space if you don’t like being shoved up against someone else’s shoulder at peak times.
The lift climbs 546 metres in 55 seconds. Your ears will pop. As the doors slide open on the 118th floor, the first thing you’ll see are the windows…
Their angle. Because the tower curves inwards as it increases in height, you’re gazing down from angled glass at a dizzying drop. Far below, the Huangpu River snakes through the city, and on clear days, you can follow its bends all the way out to where it meets the Yangtze estuary.
Across the water is The Bund, where colonial-era buildings now form a neat row of small blocks.
From up here, Shanghai stretches out in all directions, a thick blanket of skyscrapers that gives way to haze on the horizon. The buildings clustered around the tower show off their small sizes; even Lujiazui seem within reach from up here. People jostle for position in front of the windows, phone cameras raised.
With views of the river, it take some time to find a space to stand silently and marvel.
Below is the Oriental Pearl Tower, all lattice and pink spheres, which seem faintly flimsy up here. For years, it was the tallest building in Shanghai, until these supertalls came along. These days, it’s primarily a tourist attraction (its observation decks are far down below) and a broadcast tower.
One part of the metal screen by the windows is covered in love padlocks, a tradition that has crept into observation decks worldwide. Next to us soars the Shanghai World Financial Center, known locally as the “bottle opener” for its rectangular opening at the very top. From here you are looking down upon its crown.
Beyond it stands the Jin Mao Tower, whose pagoda-like tiers step up and up. It too has an observation deck (though not as high), but neither building reaches this height.
If the crowd lets you, it is possible to walk all the way around the tower’s core in the 118th floor hall. It wraps around itself and gives you a complete loop. The most crowded spots are those offering the best views (anything where you have a clear shot of the World Financial Center or the river).
Certain stretches of the interior wall also feature benches. They is for people like me who aren’t crazy about heights or just want to rest their feet while they travel with someone else.
Near the windows is a lit-up scale model of the Lujiazui skyline that can help you find out which building is what in the real thing. Each tower has its name and height lit up, and then it lights up one by one to show them all. It is one of the only interactive things on this floor that isn’t just for photos.
The darkened room with the glowing projection panels showing images of how Shanghai grew and how this tower was built is also worth checking out. It’s quieter than the main observation hall and has the added bonus of having the film running all the time so it’s a good spot for a rest if you get fed up with queuing.
On the 125th floor, there’s a special set of lifts to get to the tower’s tuned mass damper. This enormous pendulum absorbs the building’s movement during windy conditions, and the display surrounding it include explanatory diagrams as well as a viewing area that lets you watch the massive pendulum swing in its shaft. If you’re fascinated by structural engineering, then the additional elevator trip might be worthwhile.
But if not, 125 doesn’t offer much more impressive views than 118 does.
One of the higher floors features a rotating art installation program; currently, it include a huge sculpture under a ribbed canopy. It’s the latter that’s the showstopper here, with its geometric ribs stretching upward like a metallic umbrella.
Inside, there are display cases lining the walls displaying ceramics and other objects that seem a little out of place here but are presumably meant to anchor the tower in local culture. You’ll find things like this: a celadon-glazed bowl on carved wood, though honestely most visitors walk straight past.
The windows in the observation deck become silhouettes in the late afternoon; people are mere dark figures against the cityscape behind them. As the sun lowers, the perspective change and the urban grid stretches out before you in ever-deepening shadow. However long you’ve spent up here, the feeling of being high above everything never lets up…
You’re still looking down at all the surrounding building.
You’re shunted out the exit and into the gift shop. There, you’ll find the standard fare of observation-deck souvenirs: postcards, fridge magnets, and keychains embossed with an image of the tower. Expect to pay tourist prices, because you are a tourist at the summit of a famous landmark.
The descent lifts is quicker than the ascent ones, or so it feels. So yes, as advertised, Shanghai Tower offers the tallest viewing platform in China, and indeed, kilometers of panoramic views in all directions. This comes at a price (the gift shop gauntlet and queue shuffle), but so does the height.
If you’ve visited any of Shanghai’s other observation towers, how do they stack up?
