Shanghai is a very unusual place and this is it’s least usual building. It really looks like an alien from The Day of The Triffods arrived a little too early for the invasion so is trying to disguise itself as a sky scraper until it’s budies turn up.
I didn’t go up it as there were really big queues, I thought it was unreasonably expensive and it gererally just weirded me out a bit. Instead I took the elevators to the top restaurant floors of a few random sky scrapers and saw the same view, a better view infact, because I could see the Pearl Tower.
What was even stranger and more Bladerunnerish than the tower was the little train that takes you under the river to get to it. You stand in a glass carriage and pass through an amazing techno light and music display that depicts hell and heaven and underwater world and has blow up creatures that shoot up in front of you.

Fantastic landmark that defines the futuristic Shanghai skyline. I guess the architects had been watching a fair bit of Bladerunner when they designed this! Of course, you can’t do much but go up it, and since it’s almost 100% guaranteed to be really foggy in Shanghai, you get to see the insides of some clouds. That doesn’t detract from the awesome engineering feat building something like this is! I believe it’s the world’s 7th tallest freestanding structure. Which is tall enough.

At 468 metres in height, you could believe it was a rocket that had been planted in the middle of the town.
Metro Lujiazui line 2, or from the Bund via the tunnel.
Ticket prices: 70 yuan for the upper sphere, 200 yuan at lunchtime (11:00-14:00) and 280 yuan in the evening (17:00-21:00) to eat in the revolving restaurant on the same level. 100 yuan for the highest ball (Space Cabin). These prices include the entrance to the Shanghai City Museum on the ground floor.
It’s one of the most visited sights but the weather is often very foggy in Shanghai. If that’s the case then you’ll have to content yourself with visiting the Shanghai City History Museum, which is worth the ticket price on its own (price: 35 yuan for the museum only).