Shanghai World Finacial Center

Shanghai World Financial Center: The Bottle Opener and What It Overlooks

The Shanghai World Financial Center stands 492 metres tall in the Pudong district’s Lujiazui financial zone, completed in 2008 after a decade of construction interrupted by the 1997 Asian financial crisis. The building’s most notable feature is the trapezoidal aperture near its apex – a design decision taken partly for structural reasons (reducing wind load) and partly for aesthetics, though the resulting shape earned it the immediate nickname “the bottle opener” from Shanghai residents. The aperture was originally designed as a circle but was changed to a rectangle during construction to avoid resembling the rising sun on the Japanese flag; the building’s developer was the Japanese company Mori Building.

At the time of completion it was the tallest building in China. It held that record for two years before the nearby Shanghai Tower surpassed it in 2015. The three towers of Lujiazui – the SWFC, Shanghai Tower (632 metres), and Jin Mao Tower (421 metres) – stand close enough together that all three are frequently in the same photograph. This cluster, visible from across the Huangpu River on the Bund, is the defining image of contemporary Shanghai.

The Observation Decks

The SWFC’s Skywalk observation facility operates across three floors. The 94th floor (Level 94, at 423 metres) has a conventional enclosed deck with 360-degree views. The 97th floor (Level 97) has a glass floor section and a higher vantage point. The 100th floor (Level 100, at 474 metres) is the main attraction: a transparent walkway with a glass floor running along the aperture at the top of the building, 474 metres above the street. Looking straight down through the glass floor at rush hour from 474 metres is an immediate and physical experience of height.

Tickets for the top-level observation deck cost 180 CNY (approximately $25 USD) on weekdays, 200 CNY on weekends. Combined tickets for multiple levels are available at 220-280 CNY. Book online in advance through the official SWFC website; weekend queues without advance booking can run 45-90 minutes. The top deck is at its best in late afternoon light when the sun is low over the Bund side and the river reflects gold below.

The View

From 474 metres on a clear day, you can see Pudong extending east to the industrial port facilities and beyond. Looking west across the Huangpu, the Bund’s row of early-20th-century European commercial buildings reads clearly – the HSBC building, the Customs House clock tower, the Peace Hotel. The bend of the river and the contrast between the two sides of Shanghai, one colonial-era trading port and one 1990s-to-present financial construction, is the essential visual argument for being this high. From the Bund you see the skyline but not the city; from 474 metres you see both.

Jin Mao and Shanghai Tower

The other two towers in the Lujiazui cluster are both accessible to visitors. Jin Mao Tower (421 metres, completed 1998) has an observation deck on the 88th floor at 340 CNY. The Grand Hyatt hotel occupies floors 54-87; the atrium lobby looking up through the hotel floors from the base to the ceiling is more architecturally interesting than the external views.

Shanghai Tower (632 metres, completed 2015) has an observation deck at 546 metres, the second-highest in the world at time of writing. Entry runs 180-220 CNY. The building’s exterior is a spiralling form that reduces wind load by 24 percent compared to a conventional rectangular tower; the effect inside is a series of vertical neighbourhoods separated by sky gardens at different levels.

Getting There

Line 2 of the Shanghai Metro stops at Lujiazui station, directly under the financial district. From People’s Square in central Shanghai, the journey takes about 5 minutes. From the station, the SWFC is a 10-minute walk past the other towers.

The Bund

The Bund is 15 minutes by taxi across the Huangpu River, or reachable by ferry from the Lujiazui dock (2 CNY, runs frequently). Walking the Bund promenade facing the Pudong skyline is the complementary experience to the observation deck: here you are at river level watching the towers rise. The Bund’s buildings are worth examining in their own right – the former bank buildings and trading houses represent 30 years of Shanghai’s commercial architecture from the 1910s to the 1940s, including Beaux-Arts, Art Deco, and various neoclassical styles.

Eating along the Bund at restaurant level is expensive (meal at a rooftop restaurant, 300-600 CNY per person). In the streets immediately behind the Bund, on Fuzhou Road and around Yu Garden in the Old City, Shanghainese food at reasonable prices is accessible: xiaolongbao (soup dumplings) at Nan Xiang Steamed Bun Restaurant near Yu Garden runs 30-55 CNY for a basket, with queues that are substantial but move relatively fast.