Shanghai World Financial Center

On Jan 27th, 2009 while in Shanghai, we decided to travel to the top floor observatory of the Shanghai World Financial Center - the tallest building in China, and at the date of its completion, August 2008, the tallest in the world. We arrived there at around 2:30pm. You can click on the images to see a larger view.


There was a very long waiting line and we were told it was 90 minutes to get in. A local tour group, short on people, told us they could get us in much quicker. After waiting outside for an hour and watching other people who arrived after us getting in, we abandoned the tour group and stood in line. Once we finally did get inside, we saw that tour group still standing outside waiting their turn. However, once inside there was another 90 minute waiting line, after buying the tickets ($150 RMB each), just to get the lower observation platform. Ugh, a lot of waiting.


The lower observation platform was on floor 90 (I believe) and I did not take many pictures there. I wanted to get to the top, floor 101, for the ultimate view. Of course, there was another line to wait in for that.


Finally, on the top floor! It was getting dark out by then, 5:30pm, and actually, with all the city lights, the view was even more spectacular!
The upper observation platform extends from one end of the building to the other. It is all glass, including the floor, so you can look almost straight down to the ground (in spots).


Here is a shot of the Jin Mao Tower. Last year it was the tallest building in Shanghai at 88 floors and 1,380 ft (counting the spire). We are easily looking down on it from the 101st floor and 1,614 ft up! We went up in it in 2007 and posted photos in this blog.


Here is a shot of the Oriental Pearl TV Tower. We toured it in 2006. It's 1,535 ft tall, and we can still look down on it from here!


At 6:30pm, 4 hours after we started, we left. It was incredible! A very long wait, and expensive, but worth it!