Shanghai Oriental Pearl Tower

About the Oriental Pearl Tower

Shanghai is the largest city in China, known for its iconic Oriental Pearl Tower and stunning skyline. The city combines traditional Chinese culture with modern development, featuring the Bund waterfront, historic French Concession, and vibrant cultural scene.

Construction of the 468-metre broadcast tower in Lujiazui, Pudong, began on 30 July 1991, and the structure was completed in 1994 and opened to visitors on 1 May 1995, with a design led by Jia Huancheng of the Shanghai Modern Architectural Design Institute. Its eleven linked spheres rose just as Pudong, designated a development zone in 1990, was being rebuilt from farmland and warehouses into a financial district, so the tower became visual shorthand for that transformation and for the Bund's opposite riverbank view. It remained the tallest structure in China until the Shanghai World Financial Center surpassed it in 2007. Claims that the spheres deliberately illustrate a Tang-dynasty poem about pearls are often repeated but are not firmly documented.