Jin Mao Tower
The Jin Mao Tower is a 420.5-metre, 88-storey landmark skyscraper in the Lujiazui financial district of Pudong, Shanghai. Completed in 1998, it was China’s tallest building at the time and housed the Grand Hyatt Shanghai hotel from the 53rd floor upward — then the highest hotel in the world. Together with the Oriental Pearl Tower, the Shanghai World Financial Center, and the Shanghai Tower, it forms the iconic Lujiazui skyline visible from the Bund.
At a glance
- Type
- Mixed-use landmark skyscraper (offices, hotel, retail)
- Period
- Construction completed 1998
- Style
- Postmodern with traditional Chinese pagoda references
- Location
- 88 Century Avenue, Lujiazui, Pudong District, Shanghai 200121, China
- Coordinates
- 31.2353° N, 121.5036° E
- Height
- 420.5 m (1,380 ft); 88 floors
Overview
The Jin Mao Tower stands as one of the defining elements of the Pudong skyline that transformed Shanghai’s image from the 1990s onward. Designed by the Chicago office of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, the tower blends a curtain-wall glass exterior with stepped setbacks that explicitly reference the tiered silhouette of classical Chinese pagodas. Its name — Jin Mao, meaning “golden prosperity” — reflects the optimism of China’s economic opening, and the building has since become one of Shanghai’s most recognisable landmarks.
History
The Jin Mao Tower was commissioned as a flagship project for the Pudong New Area development, the special economic zone designated by the Chinese government in 1990 to drive Shanghai’s transformation into a global financial centre. Ground was broken in 1994, and the building was topped out in August 1997 before its official opening in 1998. At completion it surpassed the CITIC Plaza in Guangzhou to become mainland China’s tallest structure, a title it held until 2008 when the Shanghai World Financial Center was completed next door.
What you see
The tower’s 88 floors are divided into a lower office block (floors 3–50), the Grand Hyatt Shanghai hotel (floors 53–87), and a public observation deck on the 88th floor. The hotel’s dramatic atrium — a 152-metre-high cylindrical void spiralling up through 34 floors — is among the most photographed interior spaces in Asia. The observation deck on level 88 offers 360-degree views across the Huangpu River, the historic Bund, and the ever-expanding Pudong skyline including the neighbouring Shanghai Tower.
Cultural significance
The Jin Mao Tower is a key symbol of China’s rapid urbanisation and economic rise in the post-reform era, and its deliberate integration of classical Chinese architectural motifs into a modern glass-and-steel structure represents a widely influential approach to contextual skyscraper design. It remains a touchstone reference in discussions of how contemporary Asian cities negotiate identity between global modernity and cultural heritage.
Practical information
- Address
- 88 Century Avenue, Lujiazui, Pudong District, Shanghai 200121, China
- Observation deck
- 88th floor; check official website for current hours and admission fees
- Hotel
- Grand Hyatt Shanghai, floors 53–87 (independent reservation required)
Getting there
The nearest metro station is Lujiazui on Shanghai Metro Line 2, a five-minute walk from the tower’s main entrance on Century Avenue. The Maglev from Pudong International Airport also connects to the Line 2 interchange at Longyang Road, from which Lujiazui is three stops. Ferry services cross the Huangpu River from the Bund to Lujiazui pier.