Handpicked experience · Shanghai
Shanghai, China
A wind opening redesigned because it looked like a flag, three towers the city renamed after kitchen implements, and counterweights swinging out of step to hold a building still.
Three viewing levels rather than one, at different heights
Four unhurried hours instead of a queue and a lap
A guide who can name what you are looking at across the river
Glass flooring for anyone willing to stand on it
An interior atrium next door that outdoes the view outward
A 4-hour private visit to the three stacked observation levels of one of Shanghai's supertall towers in Pudong, with a guide to explain what you are looking at — the buildings, the river bend and the city arranged below.
Very little walking: lifts do the climbing, and the time is spent moving between viewing floors and waiting for the light to be worth photographing. Four hours is generous for one building, which is the point — you are not queuing and leaving.
The tower was designed with a circular opening near the top, cut through the structure to let wind pass rather than push. Before construction, objections were raised that a rising disc against the sky read as a Japanese flag over Shanghai. The developer, himself Japanese, redesigned it as a trapezoid. The engineering purpose was unaffected; the shape everyone photographs today exists because of an argument about symbolism.
The three towers standing together here are known across the city by what they resemble from the street. One is the bottle opener, for obvious reasons. One is the syringe, for its tapered spire. The third, the twisted one, gets called the whisk. Together, locals call them the three-piece kitchen set — a nickname no architect intended and none has managed to displace.
Buildings this slender move in wind, and the movement is designed for rather than resisted. Near the top sit enormous counterweights, mounted so they swing slightly out of step with the building itself, cancelling the sway. On a windy day the tower is quietly working underneath you. The twisted neighbour goes further: its 120-degree turn was calculated to shed wind loads and cut the amount of steel needed by roughly a quarter.
In the third of the group, hotel rooms are arranged around a barrel-shaped atrium that drops thirty storeys through the middle of the building. Leaning over the rail on an upper floor and looking straight down that shaft is a stronger sensation than anything the observation decks provide, and it is free to anyone walking through.
The whole point of this booking is visibility, and Shanghai's air is not reliably clear — summer haze can flatten the view completely, and low cloud sometimes sits below the top deck. Late afternoon into dusk gives you the city in daylight and lit, which is the best single window. The guide's time is what you have booked; tickets and any hotel collection are separate arrangements made when you book.
Open it to pick a date and work out the price.
What the fare covers, and what to budget for separately.
The practical detail, and the answers people actually ask for.
To let wind through instead of resisting it. It was drawn as a circle, but objections that a disc against the sky resembled a Japanese flag over Shanghai led the developer to redesign it as a trapezoid.
The bottle opener, the syringe and the whisk, depending on which one you mean — and collectively the three-piece kitchen set. The names are universal here and entirely unofficial.
Yes, by design. Huge counterweights near the top are hung so they swing slightly out of step with the structure, cancelling the sway rather than fighting it.
The 120-degree turn was calculated to break up wind loads on the facade, which reduced the steel needed by roughly a quarter. The shape is an engineering result before it is an aesthetic one.
Yes — the neighbouring tower has a barrel-shaped atrium dropping thirty storeys through its hotel floors. Looking straight down it is more startling than the view outward, and anyone walking through can do it.
The view is the product, so visibility matters more than anything else. Summer haze can flatten it, and low cloud occasionally sits beneath the highest deck.
No. The booking covers the private guide and their time; entry to the observation levels is arranged separately, as is hotel collection unless you select it.