PLACE GUIDE

Shanghai Tower 上海中心大厦

Shanghai Zhongxin Dasha

Shanghai Tower rises beside Jin Mao Tower and Shanghai World Financial Center in Lujiazui.

Shanghai Tower · 上海中心大厦. Photo: 14 November 2019, 15:07.
Shanghai Tower · 上海中心大厦. Photo: 14 November 2019, 15:07. · Balon Greyjoy · CC0
Photo adjustments

Converted to WebP and resized without changing the subject or cropping the source frame.

Explore the region

Shanghai · 上海市 →Pudong New Area · 浦东新区 →

About Shanghai Tower

Gensler’s design divides the skyscraper into stacked zones for different uses, with public sightseeing spaces high above the river.

The visit works at two scales: the ground-level grouping of three supertall buildings and the elevated view from the observation facilities included in your ticket. Check visibility and the specific floors offered before booking; old rankings and elevator-speed claims add little to planning the experience.

The site had previously been the Lujiazui Golf Club's (陆家嘴高尔夫练习场) driving range. The Lujiazui Group (陆家嘴集团) held three rounds of tendering, and in the final round Gensler's 'dragon' scheme (龙型方案) was chosen over Foster and Partners' 'spire' design for the detailed plan. Construction began on 29 November 2008, the core structure reached 632 meters on 3 August 2013, and the project was completed on 15 March 2016. The tower is the second supertall building to use a double-layer glass curtain wall, after Hong Kong's International Commerce Centre (香港环球贸易广场), and its facade encloses 24 sky gardens.

In 2015 the tower won the gold Emporis Skyscraper Award, and the Shanghai Guanfu Museum (上海观复博物馆) opened on its 37th floor that same year. In 2016 the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat gave it its Best Tall Building Worldwide award. The 'Top of Shanghai' (上海之巅) observation hall on the 118th floor opened to visitors on 26 April 2017, and the J Hotel, on floors 86 to 98, opened fully in June 2021.

What to look for

  • The tower forms a close architectural grouping with Jin Mao Tower and Shanghai World Financial Center.
  • High-level sightseeing spaces offer a different perspective on the Huangpu and city layout.

Background & history

The Shanghai Tower is a 128-story, 632-meter-tall (2,073-foot) megatall skyscraper located in Lujiazui, Pudong, Shanghai. It was the tallest and largest LEED-CS Platinum-certified building in the world from 2016 to 2025. It was also the second tallest-building by height to tip in the world from 2015 to 2021, until the completion of Merdeka 118 in Malaysia (which has fewer floors and is shorter when considered height to highest occupied floor, but exceeds the Shanghai Tower by having a much longer antenna spire). The Shanghai Tower also had the world's fastest elevators at a top speed of 20.5 meters per second (74 kilometers per hour; 46 miles per hour) until 2017, when it was surpassed by the Guangzhou CTF Finance Center, with its top speed of 21 meters per second (76 km/h; 47 mph).

Excerpt from Wikipedia: Shanghai Tower · Wikipedia contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected introductory sentences; formatting simplified. Background information, not current visitor-service advice.

The surrounding area

A large district containing major museums and the tower skyline. A hotel near one attraction may still be far from another.

Location & getting there

Getting to Shanghai Tower

Travel to Shanghai Tower in the Lujiazui skyscraper cluster, beside Jin Mao Tower and Shanghai World Financial Center. Use the entrance specified for the sightseeing ticket.

General visit reminders

Use the Chinese name and exact local address when arranging your arrival. A city, district or neighbourhood can cover a wide area, so choose the particular streets or venues you want to visit and group nearby stops together. Check onward and return connections before committing to a distant extension.

Combine your visit

A suggested sequence linking the specific features of this visit.

  1. Ground-level skyscraper grouping

    Compare the forms of the three neighbouring towers.

  2. Booked observation level

    Read the river and city structure from the permitted elevated viewing space.

This order is editorial. Confirm access and any transfers between stops; it does not establish a walking route, same-day connection or common admission ticket.

City districts & landmarks · 城市街区／地标 →

Find Shanghai Tower

上海中心大厦 · 浦东新区

Amap · 高德地图Approximate pin · 近似位置Apple Maps · 苹果地图

The pin marks the area, not the entrance.

More places nearby

Approximate straight-line distances between map pins, not travel distances.

Shanghai Ocean Aquarium 上海海洋水族馆

Less than 1 km away

Shanghai Ocean Aquarium is an indoor aquatic attraction in Lujiazui. Its exhibits use geographic zones alongside an underwater tunnel sequence.

View guide →

Oriental Pearl Tower 东方明珠

Less than 1 km away

The Oriental Pearl Tower stands in Lujiazui on the eastern bank of the Huangpu, opposite the Bund. Its futuristic arrangement of spheres and supporting columns made it one of the city’s most recognizable television towers.

View guide →

The Bund 外滩

1 km away

The Bund follows the western bank of the Huangpu along East Zhongshan No. 1 Road. Historic banks, trading houses and hotels face the modern towers of Lujiazui across the water.

View guide →

Sources & visit information

The sources below support the place-specific description and arrival information. Suggested combinations are editorial planning ideas; confirm current opening, entry arrangements and transport services for your date.

Visitor information adapted and edited from Wikipedia contributors, “Shanghai Tower” · CC BY-SA 4.0. Source revision 1372943073.

Visitor information adapted and edited from Wikivoyage contributors, listing “Shanghai Tower” · CC BY-SA 4.0.

Background paragraphs translated and condensed from Wikipedia contributors, "上海中心大厦", Chinese Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0. Source revision 93547403.

Background paragraphs condensed from Wikipedia contributors, "Shanghai Tower", English Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0. Source revision 1372943073.

China Revealed · Editorially updated 2026-10-07