Shanghai World Financial Center - a "bottle opener" in China

Shanghai World Financial Center is a skyscraper that is one of the top tallest buildings in China and the world. It is currently ranked as the 7th tallest building in China, and the 11th tallest building in the world.

The building is located right next to two other super skyscrapers: the Jin Mao Building (420.5 meters high) and the Shanghai Tower (632 meters high). The latter is the second tallest building in the world.

The Shanghai Skyscraper was designed by American architect William Pedersen.

On August 27, 1997, the cornerstone was laid. Due to financial problems and financial crisis in Asia, the construction of the building was delayed and completed only after 9 years. Originally the skyscraper was to have 460 meters (94 floors), in February 2003 its height was increased to 492.3 meters (101 floors). Shanghai World Financial Center was completed on September 14, 2008.

The distinctive feature of the Shanghai World Financial Center is the opening at the top of the building. Originally, the opening was intended to be circular and represent the Chinese mythological image of the sky as a circle, as well as the Chinese moon gate. However, they felt that the circular design was too similar to the circle on the Japanese flag, which represents the rising sun. Therefore, after protests, the shape was changed to a trapezoid (50 m wide). As with the Kingdom Centre, the skyscraper is referred to as a giant bottle opener.

His three observatories, particularly the observatory with a 55-meter glass platform on the 100th floor (474 meters), are the main attraction of the building. The other two are located on the 94th floor (423 meters) and the 97th floor (439 meters).

The construction cost of the skyscraper was about $1.25 billion.

The building has 101 floors and 3 underground floors, served by 33 elevators and 91 escalators. Inside are offices, meeting rooms, a hotel, a museum and a shopping center.

The Park Hyatt Shanghai hotel, which is housed in a tower, offers a total of 174 rooms and suites and occupies floors 79 to 93. At the time of its construction, it was the tallest hotel in the world.

The skyscraper is named the "World Trade Center", is due to the fact that it was funded by investors from all over the world. This makes the tower a true international skyscraper. Among the funders we can find several Chinese and Japanese banks, as well as investors from America and Europe. The project was also partially financed by the Japanese developers, the "Mori Building Company", with the help of the American investment bank Morgan Stanley.