Discover Shanghai
Shanghai Tower Observation Deck
上海中心大厦 上海之巅观光厅
China's tallest building, with an observation hall on floors 118-119 at 546m reached by one of the world's fastest lifts. On a clear day you look straight down onto the Jin Mao and SWFC towers that used to be the skyline.
The story
What makes this place special
The tower is the third and tallest of the Lujiazui cluster, structurally topped out in 2014 and opened to the public in February 2015, at 632m to its tip with 128 floors above ground. Its outer glass skin spirals through a 120-degree twist on the way up, which was calculated to cut wind loading by roughly 24% and allowed about a quarter less structural steel than a conventional tower - the shape is engineering, not styling. Its shuttle lifts ran at 20.5m/s and held the world record for the fastest lift until 2017. The 118th-floor deck sits at 546m and has been fully open since 26 April 2017; a higher deck on the 121st floor at 562m later opened and was, at the time, the highest observation deck in the world.
What you’ll discover
You go down to a basement ticket hall, through security, and up in a lift that takes under a minute to the 118th floor - a wide circular glass gallery from which the whole city is laid out below: the Huangpu bending round the Bund, the two older towers of Lujiazui now beneath you, and the grid of the city running to the horizon. On a clear day you can see the sea haze. The deck has a glass floor section, a cafe and, in a corner, the tuned mass damper that keeps the building steady, visible as a vast suspended weight.
A little local insight
Good to know before you go
- Weather decides everything. Shanghai is hazy for much of the year and at 546m you are frequently inside the cloud - check visibility the same day before you commit, and have the Shanghai Museum or the Bund as a fallback.
- The alternative view from the Shanghai World Financial Center next door - the 'bottle opener' - has a lower deck but puts the Shanghai Tower itself in the picture. From the top of the Shanghai Tower you cannot see the thing that makes the skyline famous, because you are standing on it.
- Go up about an hour before sunset: you get the city in daylight, the sunset, and the lights coming on, for one ticket. That is also the busiest slot, so book it.
- The reflections in the glass wreck photographs. Press the lens flat against the pane, or shoot from the lift lobby corners where the interior lighting is dimmer.
- The queue is in the basement, and it is not visible when you arrive at street level - a long wait can be hidden below you. Pre-booked timed entry is the only reliable way to avoid it.
- Lujiazui's elevated circular pedestrian walkway is the best free thing here and connects the tower, the mall and the Oriental Pearl without crossing a road.
When to come
The hour before and after sunset on a clear day, ideally in winter or after a day of rain when the air is washed clean. Summer afternoons are usually hazy and the view is grey on grey.
Getting around
Among the most accessible attractions in Shanghai. The whole route is lift-served from the basement ticket hall to the observation gallery, the deck is a level, smooth, wide circular floor with glass to the ground so a seated visitor sees as much as a standing one, and there are lifts, accessible toilets and seating up there. Metro Lujiazui station and the elevated walkway system are lift-equipped. The only real issues are the length of the security and ticket queue, which has little seating, and the crush at the glass at sunset.
Worth knowing before you go
Check the live visibility index the tower posts each morning before buying - haze days turn ¥180 into a view of grey soup. Entrance is in the B1 podium, not at street level.
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