The Perfect Tour to World's Highest Observation Deck, Shanghai Tower - China


In our trip to China was so joyful and full of amazing things. We spent 6 days in Shanghai and visited so  many places.The Shanghai Tower is one of the most interest places among gorgeous experiences in China. Specially our curious son wanted to visit and learn about that marvelous skyscraper and take photos to show school friends.

Way from Lujiazui station to Shanghai tower

Luckily we could book a hotel very close to The Bund. The Bund is a beautiful waterfront area in central Shanghai. It runs along the western bank of the Huangpu River in the eastern part of Huangpu District. From that hotel to the Shanghai tower is walking distance about 1.5 km.

There are many ways to get there, the most common option is by subway.Take Line 2 and get off at Lujiazui station. But don't forget to get out the station at exit 6, then the tower will be arrived. If you get wrong exit, it will be hard to find the correct path and you may be take more time to enter the right path again. Because subway stations have many exits and gates in Shanghai and Beijing.



Oriental Perl Tower view at the city




The Oriental Pearl Tower

My kids were enjoying Shanghai city walk and beautiful views. Some places were full of gorgeous  flowers  and tall buildings. Nice areas to walk and ride a bicycle.There is a beautiful magenta color tall The Oriental Pearl tower standing middle of the city. The Oriental Pearl Radio & Television Tower is located opposite to the Bund and just beside the Huangpu River.

Many tourists and locals like to visit here.It is 468m (1535 Feet) tall tower is ranked as the 5th tallest tower in the world, and the 3rd tallest tower in Asia. It has an unique architectural design with attractive color.



From anyplace in the city,you can see the Shanghai tower dominates among other buildings.Wow!!! it is marvelous. Through various malls or over footbridges along Century Avenue, you get to Shanghai Tower.


Shanghai tower dominates in the city

If you have bought the admission ticket online, you can directly go to the entrance of the observatory to pick up the ticket on a dedicated device, which can be found at the level B1 after you get in from the main entrance by the street.If you buy tickets at the desk,they ask an ID such as passport,  but if you don’t have one they send you to a machine to get a photo printed don't worry, this is free so not a big issue if you forget your passport.The ticket price is lower, the normal entry price is only 180 RMB, it is approximately 25 USD.


At the entrance

After entering into the entrance, the first place prepared for visitors is known as the preface hall of the observatory, there are some pictures and videos showing the development of Shanghai Tower, and some diagrams and models that introduce some other tallest buildings around the world.


Observatory hall




Inside the preface hall

After watching the interesting things in preface hall, we were take an escalator to the level B2, you will then wait for the high-speed elevator in a queue, usually it takes about 5 to 10 minutes while it can also take up to half an hour on holidays and weekends.


Fastest Elevator in the World

Our ride to the 118th floor viewing platform comes by way of the Guinness World Record for world’s fastest elevator, which rockets up and down the interior at an ear-popping 18 m/sec, 55 seconds on average to reach the top floor. (around 45mph). The sightseeing hall is located on the 118th floor and then we can walk to 119th floor. Once on the 118F there is plenty of space to walk.The mind blowing elevator ride was fast and my son trilled the speed of it. The tower is clean and the tour guides speak very good English.


World fastest elevator going down


Amazing Architecture

An American architect company Gensler, in cooperation with Jun Xia, a Chinese architect, were the creators of the design of this majestic tower. 632m (2073 feet) tall Shanghai Tower is now the tallest building in China and the second tallest building on earth, only surpassed by the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. It is located in China’s Shanghai, Asia, in the Pudong district. It has 133 floors and five of floors are underground.There are 128 floors above the ground and total area of 420,000 sq m (4,520,842 sq feet). The helix shaped beautiful building is distinctive. Each one floor twisted by nearly 1 degree.


The helix shaped twisted skyscraper

The tower includes express elevators capable of taking passengers up to the observation level at over 18 m/sec (40 mph). The elevators  carry people from the second level basement to the 118th floor in just 55 seconds.Then we walked to the floor 119th.


119th Floor


Stunning View

We luckily had good weather, because on some days, it is in or above the clouds. The views on a clear sunny day are too good. The air outside at this height is changing constantly so, choose a clear sunny day ,and you will be satisfied with an unforgettable sight. These floors are the highest floors with observatory in the world.Wow!!!! speechless!!!. The view from the observation deck was amazing and when we were looking down to skyscrapers I got a feel for how high this building actually is. Yes, it is super high at 546 meters able to walk around with the a 360 degree view. Don't forget to get some amazing photos from here.


Observatory deck at the 119th floor

This building is one of the new wonders of the world. From up here, the Oriental Pear Tower, Shanghai World Financial Center and Jin Mao Tower look like toy buildings.


 World Financial Center and Jin Mao Tower looks like toy buildings.

Oriental pearl tower looks like a kids toy

Standing by the windows, we can enjoy the spectacular views of the city and the beautiful Huangpu river under the feet.


Huangpu river and the millions of buildings

There are some telescopes by the windows, but these telescopes are not free of charge, so you would better to bring your own telescope.There's a shop on 118th floor, selling souvenirs and some other products related on Shanghai Tower, even the bottled water is Shanghai Tower shaped.

A once in a life-time experience. Very beautiful man made engineering marvel and China would be proud of having such an incredible structure.This is truly one of the best experiences I’ve had in China.



Construction of the skyscraper

The construction of Shanghai Tower commenced in November 2008. Initially, it was supposed to be finished for 2010. But, construction was not completed until summer 2015. Planning of Shanghai financial district started in 1993. It was built as the last and tallest of a group of three Chinese skyscrapers situated in Shanghai. Jin Mao Tower was completed in 1998, Shanghai World Financial Center followed in 2008.Shanghai Tower is built according to a recent innovation in very high skyscraper design and it  is built on 70m long (200-feet) concrete piles.

It is a showcase of  engineering in 21st century. Shanghai Tower is one of the most sustainably advanced tall buildings in the world.The interesting thing is, Shanghai Tower can generate its own energy through wind turbines on the top levels, and it exploits the earth’s heat for use in cooling and heating components.

The Bund

We went to the Bund at the evening and had a nice walk seeing picturesque views in Shanghai most popular and attractive destinations. It's a large area to walk around along the river. Once during the evening it was less crowded. Then at night it was packed. There were policemen everywhere to ease the flow of traffic as well as people at night. The view across the river to the  Oriental Pearl TV Tower and nearby Shanghai tower make for many opportunities to take photos of the skyline. It is awesomely beautiful when lit up at night. I loved this place and would sure come again if back to Shanghai once more.



Major towers view from The Bund at day time.

Amazing view at night from The Bund

I have seen incredible Shanghai tower day and night. If you're looking to take beautiful pictures of the city, The Bund is the place,will absolutely give you that opportunity. The view is astonishingly great. I highly recommend to visit there if you travel to Shanghai.

It would be a truly memorable experience for you!!!






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