Shanghai Tower Site Visit
3 September 2019
501 Middle Yincheng Rd, Pudong, Shanghai, China
Site Visit to Shanghai Tower
Shanghai Tower is in Lujiazui Finance and Trade Zone of Pudong, with Shanghai World Financial Center to the east and Jin Mao Tower to the north. The tower ranks as China’s tallest building and second only to the world at large. The foot print takes up 30,368 square meters (about 326,878 square feet) with floor space of about 576,000 square meters (about 6,200,012 square feet), with 5 basement levels, 127 floors above ground and 5 podium floors.
- Chinese name: 上海中心大厦 (shàng hǎi zhōng xīn dà shà)
- Location: 501 Middle Yincheng Rd, Pudong
- Height: 632 m (2,073 ft)
- Floors: 127 floors above and 5 floors below ground
Shanghai Tower Observation Deck
A Shanghai Tower visit would not be completed unless including a climb to the ‘Top of Shanghai Observatory’, which is the world’s highest indoor observation deck. From this height, one can enjoy a unique panoramic view of the Huangpu River, the Bund on the west, and several other skyscrapers like the Jin Mao Tower and the World Financial Center on the east bank. Tourists are recommended to visit the exhibition hall on floor B1 first, and then take the express elevator to the 118th floor directly within only 55 seconds. At last, see the exhibition of ‘Shanghai Eye’ on the 125th and 126th floors if time permits.
- Location: 118th Floor
- Height: 546 meters (1,791 ft)
Shanghai Tower Construction
Because Shanghai is on a inactive seismic belt and the construction site is in a river basin, a firm foundation for this skyscraper is very important. To firm up the ground, engineers first put 980 foundation piles underground to a depth of 86 meters (282 feet), and then poured 61,000 cube meters (2.15 million cube feet) of concrete to set a 6-meter-thick (20-foot-thick) baseboard for anchoring the main building.
The exterior of the building spirals upward like a snake. It twists about one degree per floor to offset the wind effect on higher altitude. This is very important to a super tall building in Shanghai to withstand frequent typhoons.
The tower sports two glass facades, an inner one and an outer one, like overlapping “tubes”. The space between the two “tubes” varies from 1 to 10 meters (3 to 33 feet) wide, providing more public space inside the building. At the mean time, the space functions as a heat insulation layer like in a thermos flask. This is environment-friendly and costing less.
