In 1990 this was farmland and warehouses. Today it holds three of the tallest buildings in the world within a few hundred metres of each other — the Jin Mao Tower, the Shanghai World Financial Center with the hole through the top, and the twisting Shanghai Tower, which is the second-tallest building on earth.
The speed of it is the point. There are people working in these towers who were born before the ground they stand on was anything but fields.
What it costs
⭐ Walking Lujiazui is free, and the elevated circular pedestrian walkway between the towers is one of the better free things in the city — it lifts you off the traffic and lets you look up at all of them at once.
The observation decks are ticketed, separately, per tower. The Shanghai Tower’s is the highest; the World Financial Center’s is the one with the glass floor. Book online — the queues at the desk are the real cost.
⭐ Set your phone up before you land. Alipay and WeChat both now take foreign cards, and between them they pay for the metro, taxis, tickets, museums and almost every shop and stall. Booking a museum slot, hailing a car or buying a train ticket without one of them is genuinely difficult. See Money & Your Phone.
When to go
⚠️ Check the visibility before you buy a deck ticket. Shanghai’s air can be genuinely thick, and on a bad day a hundred-storey view is a white one. The towers publish nothing useful about this; look at them from the Bund first and decide from there.
Clear days are commonest in autumn, and after rain in any season.
Getting there
Lujiazui station on line 2 comes up inside the circular walkway. ⭐ The ferry from the Bund is the better arrival — you get the approach from the water for the price of a metro fare.
If you only have an hour
Up onto the circular walkway and round it once, which takes twenty minutes and gives you every tower from every angle. Then decide whether you are paying to go up.
If you are: one deck is enough. If you are not, the Shanghai Tower’s lobby and the riverside park at the foot of the towers cost nothing and are worth the walk.
What people get wrong
Paying for two towers. They are three hundred metres apart and the view differs by very little.
And buying a deck ticket on a hazy day because it was booked weeks ago.
Nearby
Ticketing arrangements, closing days and boat timetables as published and checked on 6 September 2026. These change without much warning — confirm with the place itself before you travel. More sights, and how they fit together, in Landmarks & Sights.