Shanghai World Financial Center - 2nd Skyscraper in Shanghai Pudong

Have you wondered why Shanghai World Financial Center - this bottle opener building is famous? Well, its exteriors and the to of the tower look like a bottle-opener and it stands right in the dead-center of the financial hub area of Pudong district where it forms the famous trio of skyscrapers in Lujiazui along with the slightly taller 2016 Shanghai Tower and the 88-floored slightly shorter Jin Mao Tower.

Shanghai World Financial Center (SWFC) is the world's finance magnet and has the best of exhibition halls, a ground floor mall with a hotel of the renowned of Hyatt Regency, monetary agencies, conference rooms, and their offices and three fantastic decks with stunning views to boast of.

As you whip upwards in the elevators it is important you get a hang of the main floor areas of the SWFC building. The shopping mall and restaurants are on the Shanghai World Financial Center floors between B second and third floors. Between the 3rd and fifth floors and the seventh to the seventy-seventh, are the offices, conference rooms and business areas of SWC. A little above from the seventy-ninth to ninety-third floors you will find the Park Hyatt Hotel and its exacting facilities. The topmost ninety-fourth to the century floor is all dedicated to sightseeing activities and tourist facilities.

We hope to give you all relevant information like the history of this building, its layout, the facts and figures on SWFC and what makes it unique to the tourists who flock here along with a couple of travel tips to make your trip to the SWFC unique, well-planned and full of truly worth-while experience.

Chinese Name: 上海环球金融中心

Opening Hour: 9:00 - 22:30

Height: 492m

Location: 100 Century Avenue, Pudong, Shanghai, China

Floor: 101 & 3 Underground Floor

Construction: 1997 - 2008

Most often it is confusing to know where the entrances are, how much the tickets will cost or at what time does the SWFC open or close. So we provide you with the much-needed travel information you will require as you head out to explore the Shanghai World Financial Center.

Don’t get lost in the maze of elevators and entrances of the Shanghai World Financial Center when trying to discover the SWFC! If you wish to go to the observation skywalks and deck areas then use the basement-1 elevator opposite the Jin Mao Tower or the west-side of the SWFC building. The Park Hyatt floors can be accessed from the south-side elevators. At the top of the Basement-1 elevators are the ticket counters. It takes an amazing 66 seconds of high-speed travel in the elevator to reach the 94th floor.

If you wish to see only the 94th floor in Shanghai World Financial Center the tickets will cost you CNY120 for adults, CNY 60 for the physically handicapped and kids with heights between the 3.3 and 4.6 feet marks. If you wish to have a combined ticket for the three floors of the 94th, 97th, and the 100th floor then you pay CNY 180 for an adult and CNY 90 for the disabled and kids within the 1 to 1.4m marks. Well, those who do not make the 1m mark are allowed to travel for free! Just the 100th-floor visit will cost you CNY 150.

Private Tour: A private theme day tour: Experience the best in the World in Shanghai

Promotion: Shanghai World Financial Center Observation Deck [E-Voucher]

TThe Tower decks close at 11 pm.

From Dec 2 2019 to Feb 8 2020, the Winter Illumination will bring you a beautiful winter scene on B1. Winter decoration is also available in the lounge of Floor 1 from Dec 2 to Dec 31 2019.

The building has multiple restaurants and cafes inside. You could enjoy the local food or have a snack during your visit. Here is a list of things you could try:

ChaoTang Restaurant on 3F: serves decent Chaoshan Cuisine like seafood porridge. Chaoshan cuisine is a hit now in Shanghai.

DIN TAI FUNG on 3F: A famous chain restaurant serves Shanghai local dim sum like Xiaolongbao (Chinese steamed bun).

Bluefrog bar & grill on B1: burgers & steaks with fair price and good quality.

Started in 1997 it envisaged a 101-story 460m building with 94 floors. Shortly after the Shanghai World Financial Center project faced a funds challenge with the crisis in the Asian markets and when restarted the height was enhanced to 492m and a total of 104 floors using the same foundations with reinforcement of the structure. It was 2003 by then! In 2007 August a fire broke out on the 40^th floor probably due to a welding spark and this halted the work temporarily. The next controversy to hit it was the building top which was designed as a circular ring. Since it looked like the rising sun symbol of Japan, the architects went back to their boards and changed the outline to look like a trapezoid instead. The new design looked more like a bottle-opener and hence the name stuck. Finally the last finishes were added in 2007 and the building was opened to visitors in August of 2008 almost 11 years later. Even to this date metal building replicas that can be used as bottle openers are sold in the gift shop of the tower.

The trapezoid-shaped aperture atop the Shanghai World Financial Center was integrated with reinforced concrete and structural steel. The moving and dead loads of the building are innovatively transferred to the frame which is diagonally braced with suitable outer-rigging trusses while reducing the core’s outer shear walls and weight transferred to the perimeter walls very effectively.

The view is spectacular especially at dusk when the night lights turn the setting sun’s fading rays look like the glint of the Chinese jewels on the necklace-like horizon, viewed from the SWFC. Oh, it does get crowded up the Shanghai World Financial Center and you may have to wait an hour or so for those exclusive views. And yes, pray that fog and rain don’t dampen that view or wash-it-out totally! Whether you want to get a bird’s eye view or a trick-like looking professional photo presenting you aerially against Shanghai’s skyscraper lined horizon the SWFC does not disappoint.

From its observation deck, you will get some spectacular and astonishing views of the Shanghai skyline, an aerial view of the Pudong district and the banks of the River Huangpu. You can also view the 88-floored Jin Mao tower on its western side. Its location at the center of Pudong New District’s Lujiazui is the financial hub of Shanghai. It was designed by the Architects Mori Building Corporation of Japan and the Kohn Pedersen Fox architectural firm.

The other observation deck on the 94th floor is also no mean sight to behold at 1,388 feet. The deck here consists of a hall of about 897 sq yards or 750 sq m. The hall can be used for exhibitions and provides an enviable view of the River Huangpu and its banks along with the interesting perspective of the Shanghai skyline. Go ahead and take a few snapshots while browsing for artifacts or souvenirs on the 94th floor of the Shanghai World Financial Center or take the time to grab a snack and drink from the café bar also located at the observation hall.

Ticket: Shanghai World Financial Center Ticket

This view at the Shanghai World Financial Center will offer you a different perspective of the Shanghai skyline from the SWC Tower. At 1,440 feet height, the deck here is perfect for selfies and photo-shoots. Look upwards and admire the tremendous ingenuity that has gone into the skylight. Did you know these are retractable and provide for an aerial overpass into the sky when the weather is fine?

You should also visit the SWFC’s Park Hyatt Hotel on the 87^th floor. Sit in their lobby with-a-view and patronize their cocktail bar as you take in the bird-eye panorama of the Shanghai and Pudong areas for free.

Ticket: Shanghai World Financial Center 97th and 100th Floor Observation Deck

The Skywalk of Shanghai World Financial Center is truly phenomenal at the SWFC. At a height of 474m on the 100th floor, the gallery for views is 60-yards long and has a reinforced glass floor. Just imagine walking atop the turrets of the 88^th floor Jin Mao Tower and reaching out to the top of the Oriental Pearl Tower! That’s exactly how it feels! Watch the people from up above or just gaze outwards to embrace the Chinese horizon and both banks of the River Huangpu. At sunset, the illuminated skyline makes the most exhilarating of views. The 1,555 feet glass corridor has three sections of the transparent glass corridor and is suspended over the bottle-opener-like opening atop the SWFC building.

Also called the “Sightseeing Sky Pavilion of Shanghai World Financial Center”, it is higher than the other two observation decks in the SWC. This fourth highest Sky-Deck in the world is the third-highest Chinese observation decks. The taller ones are at the Shenzhen IFC and Canton Tower.

Ticket: Shanghai World Financial Center 97th and 100th Floor Observation Deck

Did you know that the four tallest towers of Shanghai can be viewed right here near the Shanghai World Financial Centerwhich itself is 492m tall? The other three towers are the 623m Shanghai Tower, the 470m Oriental Pearl TV Tower and the 420m Jinmao Tower. Don’t forget to notice the famous 88-floor Jin Mao Tower and its aerial view while visiting the SWFC. So, also discover Shanghai’s tallest building the Shanghai Tower which stands up at least 400 feet more than the SWFC! The trio-of-buildings tellingly located close to each other in the Financial District of Lujiazui at Shanghai sit on the shoreline of the River Pudong.

Tickets: Jinmao Tower Observation Deck

To explore more about Shanghai Skyline: Explore the Bund: the Landmark of Shanghai

Taking up a tour package of Shanghai is one of the best ways to see the SWFC and all its highpoints without the accompanying hassles of sightseeing. The fee to the three observation decks of SWFC is RMB 180 when taken as a package deal. If not the 94^th floor will cost you RMB 110, the 97^th floor another RMB 110 and the 100th-floor deck will cost you RMB 150!

If you would rather not pay for the view, how about going up to the 91^st floor and enjoying the view for free from the 100-Century Avenue Bar and Restaurant? Sipping on a drink here is not very expensive and can cost you about 8 USD.

Discovering Shanghai through self-guided walking tours is a great way of seeing Shanghai’s sightseeing attractions, getting a feel of its classical food and local culture as well as getting into a peek of its traditional theatre, music and arts scenario.

Sightseeing Tour Bus is also a good option: Shanghai City Sightseeing Tour Bus 1-Day Pas

Use Shanghai City Pass to choose 3–5 attractions from 19 attractions in 7 days. If you stay here for more than 3 days, the city pass will be worthy your price.

To get to the Shanghai World Financial Center is easy as there exist many ways to get there. You can use any of the options like the ferry, subway, tunnel, buses, shuttles or Metro depending on which is most convenient for you. The physical address of the SWFC is #100, The Century Avenue, Pudong, Shanghai.

If you are travelling from the Bund, take a ferry ride to the Dongchang Road Pier. From the pier, it is a short ten minutes of brisk walking to the famed building. Use Google or any other local street view map with instructions in English to reach SWFC.

If You Take the Metro

You can use the Metro Line 2 to get to the SWFC. Alight at the Dongchang Road Station using the Exit-4. You can also dismount at the Lujiazui Station and use Exit-6 instead. From these stations, you will have to walk to the Shanghai World Financial Center Tower which is about 10-mins away by walk. The exit is complicated in Lujiazui Station so get to the ground first and you will see the bottle opener building quite easily.

Buy a bus route guide and the most economical pass if you wish to do a repeat-tour of the skyscrapers and Shanghai World Financial Center. Here are some bus station near Shanghai World Financial Center:

Huayuan Shiqiaolu Dongtailu Station.

Dongtailu Shijidadao Station.

Shiji Dadao Pudong Nanlu Station.

Lujiazui Huanlu Dongtailu Station.

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