Viewpoint over the Pudong Skyline

Before you, on the opposite bank of the Huangpu River, stretches one of the world’s most famous panoramas, the Pudong skyline. It’s hard to imagine that before 1990 this entire area was just rice fields and fishing villages. In only a few decades this rural landscape was transformed into a dazzling symbol of Chinese modernity, and the name Pudong quite literally means east of the Pu River. In 1990 the Chinese government chose this spot to become a special economic zone, a showcase of a country opening to the world, and from that ambition rose the Lujiazui district, the financial heart of Shanghai now shining before your eyes. Among the towers near the river, the oldest is the Oriental Pearl Tower, built in 1994, whose pink and silver spheres were the first to signal the city’s renewal, and beside it stands the Jin Mao Tower, completed in 1999 and inspired by the form of a traditional pagoda, home to one of the tallest atriums in the world. Next comes the Shanghai World Financial Center, nicknamed the bottle opener for its distinctive top, and finally the majestic Shanghai Tower, the tallest building in China at 632 metres with its spiralling silhouette. Every evening these glass and steel giants glow in a dance of colourful lights.