Oriental Pearl Tower

The Oriental Pearl Tower rises from the Lujiazui district in Pudong, directly across the Huangpu River from The Bund, and remains one of the most instantly recognizable silhouettes in Shanghai. Its futuristic design, a slender concrete shaft threaded through a series of pink-tinted spheres, was conceived in the early 1990s as a symbol of the city's ambitions to become a modern financial capital, and decades later it still functions as an unofficial emblem of Shanghai itself, appearing on postcards, skyline photographs, and tourist maps alike.

Visitors ride elevators up through the structure to a series of observation levels housed inside the spheres, where floor-level windows give sweeping views back across the river to the historic facades of The Bund and out over the rest of the Pudong skyline. One of the tower's most memorable features is a revolving restaurant set at a height of around 267 meters, where diners can eat a meal while the room slowly turns to reveal a full 360-degree panorama of the city, a particularly good way to take in Shanghai's skyline after dark, when both riverbanks are lit up. Lower down, the tower complex also houses a museum on Shanghai's urban history, giving visitors a sense of how the city looked before the surrounding towers existed.

A visit typically takes a couple of hours between the elevator queues, the observation decks, and time to enjoy the views, and it pairs naturally with an evening meal if visitors choose the revolving restaurant. Late afternoon into early evening is a popular window, since it allows for daylight views on arrival and a transition into the illuminated night skyline without a long wait.

Because it sits right in Lujiazui, the Oriental Pearl Tower is easy to combine with other nearby Pudong sights such as the Shanghai Ocean Aquarium at its base, and Shanghai Tower and the Shanghai Tower Observation Deck a short walk away. Many visitors treat it as the counterpoint to The Bund on the opposite bank, viewing one from the other to fully appreciate Shanghai's old-meets-new waterfront, making it a natural half-day addition to any river-focused itinerary.