Shanghai World Financial Center (Shanghai Huanqiu Jinrong Zhongxin)

Description:

• After years of false starts (including the delay caused by the Asian Financial Crises in the late 1990s, this 101-story, 492m-high (1,614-ft.) tallest building in China finally opened in the middle of 2008. Designed by American architect William Pedersen and developed by Minoru Mori and the Mori Group, which built the Roppongi Hills complex in Tokyo, this tapering glass tower with a trapezoidal aperture at the peak wants to claim it's the tallest building in the world vis-a-vis the height at which visitors can ascend to -- which in this case is the stunning all-glass 100th-floor observatory at a height of 470m (1,542 ft.) -- though the building is technically the third-tallest in the world. An open-air skybridge on the 97th floor and exhibition space on the 94th floor, not to mention the Park Hyatt hotel moving into the 79th to 93rd floors will likely make this skyscraper the new "must visit" spot in town, though how much visitors can actually see past Shanghai's usual smog remains to be seen. Those prone to vertigo might want to check out the shops at the lower levels.

• © Frommer's 2013

Awards:

Frommer's

•  Recommended 2010