Shanghai Tower Inside An Architectural Beauty in Shanghai
Are you curious to know about what is Shanghai Tower inside?
Standing on the bank of The Huangpu River, The Shanghai Tower attracts every visitor with its majestic appearance. This building is not only the tallest in China but also integrates exquisite engineering technology and green technology. 632 meters tall and 128-storied Shanghai Tower is the 3rd tallest skyscraper building in the world. The Shanghai Tower is considered as China’s pride. It represents China’s past, present and boundless economic future to the world.
Lujiazui, a bustling financial center, has three iconic skyscrapers, which are affectionately called the “Lujiazui Three-piece Set” by netizens. These three buildings not only represent the prosperity and height of Shanghai but also have their unique appearance and Shanghai Tower Inside which has aroused the imagination and discussion of countless netizens. From left to right, they are: the 492-meter-high “bottle opener” Shanghai Global Center, the 420.5-meter-high “syringe” Jinmao Tower, and the 632-meter-high Shanghai Tower, which is known as the “egg beater”. These buildings have not only attracted countless tourists to visit, but also become a tourist attraction that cannot be missed in Shanghai.
As one of the “Lujiazui Three-piece Set”, the construction process of the Shanghai Tower can be described as magnificent. Since the foundation was laid on November 29, 2008, after more than 7 years of meticulous construction, it was finally completed on March 12, 2016. After its completion, the Shanghai Tower, with its majestic figure of 632 meters, became the tallest building in China at the time, and ranked among the top three in the world (second only to the 828-meter Burj Khalifa in Dubai, UAE and the 634-meter Tokyo Skytree in Japan).
However, time flies. On December 26, 2023, the Merdeka 118 Building in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, came out with a height of 678.9 meters, successfully surpassing the Shanghai Tower and becoming a new global height benchmark.
The Shanghai Tower, a towering building standing in Lujiazui, Pudong, will help you have a panoramic view. Inside this tallest building in China, you can enjoy the extraordinary experience of the “Sky City” in the observation hall designed for tourists.
The Shanghai Tower is not only a landmark building in Shanghai, but also a masterpiece of Chinese architectural technology. It integrates business, office, hotel, commerce, entertainment, sightseeing and exhibition.
The total height of the building reaches 632 meters, with 127 floors above ground and 5 floors underground. The total construction area is as large as 578,000 square meters. Since the construction started in November 2008, it has been carefully built for nearly 9 years and officially put into trial operation in January 2017, becoming a world-renowned architectural wonder.
During the construction of the Shanghai Tower, some people did question why its height was only two meters different from the Tokyo Skytree. Some netizens even joked that they only needed to add a decoration or raise a flag on the top to surpass the Tokyo Tower and rank second in the world. However, the design and construction of super-high buildings are far from that simple.
Architects and engineers must take into account many factors such as building quality, ground and underground conditions. Sometimes, even a tiny difference of a few centimeters can have a significant impact on the overall stability of the building. Therefore, the height of super-high buildings cannot be adjusted at will. In addition, there are rumors that the original architectural plan of Shanghai Tower was indeed designed to be higher, but in the early stage of construction in 2009, the foundation settlement problem was found, so the design plan was adjusted accordingly.
Shanghai Tower is currently ranked Third in the world’s building height.
Shanghai is located in the tidal flats of the Yangtze River Delta and the soil is soft. It was once regarded as a forbidden area for high-rise construction. But in the late 19th and early 20th centuries when high-rise buildings began to be built on the Bund, engineers conducted a lot of feasibility studies. Although technology is changing with each passing day, the impact of construction often takes a long time to fully manifest.
In any case, as a landmark building in Lujiazui, the status of Shanghai Tower is still difficult to shake. Since the implementation of the “height limit order” in 2021, it is probably difficult to see a taller building in China.
The interior of Shanghai Tower not only gathers luxury hotels and top companies, but also carefully builds a sightseeing hall on the 118th floor for tourists to overlook the panoramic view of Lujiazui.
In addition, the building also has a sky lobby and three unique sky gardens on the 22nd, 37th, 52nd and 68th floors. It is worth mentioning that the sky lobby on the 37th floor not only shows the profound cultural heritage of Shanghai Guanfu Museum, but also hides the world’s tallest indoor Chinese Garden-Half Acre Garden, which brings a unique visual feast to tourists. This building not only meets office needs, but also perfectly integrates the dual functions of sightseeing and leisure.
Duoyun Academy on the 52nd floor is the biggest surprise of my trip to Shanghai Tower Inside. The academy provides reservation services. You can take the elevator directly to it. No tickets are required. You only need a drink to enjoy a quiet reading time. However, I am a little regretful that there are not many people who are really immersed in reading. Most tourists come here to check in and take pictures.
Compared with Duoyun Academy on the 52nd floor, the Shanghai Summit on the 118th floor is undoubtedly more offensive. As a 4A-level scenic spot, the ticket price here is slightly higher, and the original price of adult tickets is 180 yuan. However, after boarding, the prosperous scenery on both sides of the Huangpu River and the damper light shows on the 128th floor will be unobstructed. It is worth mentioning that it also has the world’s fastest elevator, which can reach directly in just 50 seconds. But it should be noted that people with acrophobia may not choose this place.
Compared with the Jinmao Tower, the height of the Shanghai Center is more than 200 meters higher, and its roof shape is more beautiful and more suitable for appearance. In the winter off-season, there are relatively few tourists and there is no need to wait for a long time. However, checking the weather forecast before visiting is recommended.
The higher the visibility, the better the experience. In addition, there is the world’s highest art space, Tianshi 632, located on the 125-126 floors, much higher than the top of Shanghai.
The fact that the J Hotel occupies the 101st floor of the Shanghai Center makes it the world’s tallest hotel. The hotel is located on the 86th to 98th floors of the Shanghai Tower. It has 165 exquisite guest rooms and is equipped with 7 restaurants and executive lounges of different styles, which are located on the 1st, 84th, 101st, 103rd, 104th and 120th floors. The Tianzhijin Restaurant, which is on the 120th floor, is the world’s tallest restaurant (except for airplane dining).
Of course, staying in this sort of fancy hotel doesn’t come cheap, with room prices between 4,000 yuan to 5,000 yuan to 68,000 yuan per night.
The vertical extension of the Bund: The total area of the first row of buildings on the Bund is about 600,000 square meters, while Shanghai Tower, with its total construction area of 578,000 square meters, is like a “vertical Bund” standing in the bustling city. Next, let’s explore the highlights of this building together.
120° clever rotation: In order to seek the perfect combination of aesthetics and wind engineering, engineers carefully conducted wind tunnel tests. The test results show that the unique 120° rotation shape of Shanghai Tower reduces its wind load by up to 24%. After repeated functional relationship calculations and tests, they found that the design scheme of rotating the whole by 120° and slightly twisting each floor by 1° is the most ideal. In addition, 120°, one-third of the full circle, cleverly echoes the Jinmao Tower, Shanghai World Financial Center and other buildings. In the end, this rotating shape was determined as the final design of the Shanghai Tower.
Sky Garden: Walking in the interior space of the Shanghai Tower Inside, You will be attracted by green plants of various shapes, some of which are vibrant and some are fresh and refined. The total area covered by these green plants has reached an astonishing 7,500 square meters, adding a touch of natural color to the building. The designer cleverly uses soil ratio to ensure that the indoor greening in the super high-rise building is both beautiful and safe.
Ultra-high-speed elevators: The building is equipped with three elevators that go directly to the observation deck, with a maximum upward speed of 18 meters per second and a maximum downward speed of 10 meters per second. Tourists can reach the 118th floor observation hall from the second underground floor in just 55 seconds and enjoy the magnificent view from high above.
1,000-ton dampers: To ensure that the Shanghai Tower can remain stable under the influence of external forces such as strong winds, dampers weighing 1,000 tons are installed in Shanghai Tower Inside. This damper uses the world’s first eddy current pendulum tuned mass technology. Compared with traditional mechanical dampers, its installation, adjustment and post-maintenance are more convenient and have a longer service life. In addition, it is almost frictionless, vibration-free and noise-free, ensuring that under strong wind conditions, the building’s comfort level can reach the world’s highest H-10 standard, which means that only a maximum of 10% of people will feel shaking.
118th-119th floor Shanghai Summit Observation Deck: Visitors can fully appreciate the beauty of the integration of nature and technology. They can feel the grandeur and tranquility above the clouds at the observation deck of Shanghai Tower Inside. This place is praised as the “Sky City”, and the 119th floor is 552 meters high, making it one of the highest observation platforms in the world. Through the panoramic window, you can see iconic buildings such as the Shanghai World Financial Center, Jinmao Tower and Oriental Pearl Tower, and the whole city’s prosperity and tranquility are intertwined here.
Exhibition Hall in Shanghai Tower Inside: Located on the 1F of Shanghai Tower, the exhibition hall is an indispensable cultural highlight in the vertical city. Since its opening in 2018, it has successfully held many events such as the “Silk Road Dunhuang· Happy Survival” cultural and art exhibition and the Three-Body· Time and Space Immersion Exhibition, attracting many cultural and art enthusiasts to visit.
Exploration of Green Buildings in Shanghai Tower Inside
With the progress of the times, super-high-rise green buildings have become a new trend in urban development. As a leader in this concept, Shanghai Tower has not only attracted global attention with its unique shape and function but also made remarkable achievements in the field of green buildings which is Shanghai Tower Inside. Its efficient rainwater collection system, wind power generation facilities, and advanced energy-saving technologies have all contributed to the sustainable development of the city. Today, Shanghai Tower has become a model of green buildings in China and even the world, and its successful experience will undoubtedly provide valuable reference for the design and construction of more super-high-rise buildings in the future.