PUDONG NEW AREA
Pudong when new skyscarper
is finshed around 2012
Pudong New Area (east side of Huang Pu River on the side opposite the Bund) is a 208-square-mile (522-square-kilometer) area with industrial parks, some of the world’s tallest skyscrapers, billion dollar auto and steel plants, foreign factories, and housing developments. There are separate zones for finance (Luijazui), high tech development (Zhangjiang), export processing (Jinqiao) and trade (Waigaoqiao). Dong means east side of the river.
The heart of Pudong is basically a group of trophy skyscrapers plunked down in what used to be rice fields. Conceived by former Shanghai mayor and Chinese prime minister Zhu Rongji and designed to be China's premier "free economic zone," Pudong was built from scratch with its own international airport.
Many of the showcase building are designed by famous architects from Italy, Japan, Spain and the United States. The land used to be occupied by marshes, farms, once-story building and rice paddies.
Central Pudong is filled with new skyscrapers, office buildings and hotels and offices for over 2,000 foreign companies, including many in the Fortune 500. Among the factories there is $1.5 billion General Motors plant that churns out Buicks. On the far eastern end, about 32 kilometers from downtown Shanghai, is the new international airport connected to downtown Shanghai by the maglev train. There is an impressive river walk with shops and cafes and good views of river traffic and sights on the opposite shore. The area as a whole isn’t very walker-friendly. The wide roads are difficult to cross. Web Site: Official government site
Oriental Pearl TV and Radio Tower
Oriental Pearl TV and Radio Tower (in Pudong) is a massive 1,500-foot-high, multicolored, rocket-ship-shaped structure located across the Huangpu River from the Bund. The centerpiece of the Pudong development area and the tallest television tower in Asia, it contains two immense disco-ball-like geodesic domes with elevated shopping malls inside.
The tower is the a futuristic symbol of Shanghai. Purple and pink, it cost $100 million and rises above rows of new concrete apartments and glass skyscrapers. The tower is open daily from 8:15am to 9:15pm. The entrance fee varies from $6 to $12, depending on how high you want to go. There are often long lines to board the elevator to the observation area, where there is an outstanding view.
For a $10 admission fee, visitors can play laser tag, watch robots in a space station and go on a virtual-reality roller coaster ride in Space City, a four-story theme park in the lower orb. At the bottom of the tower is the Shanghai Municipal History Museum, with gunboats moored in river and wax figures of foreigners at a ball. Web Sites: Wikipedia ; Travel China Guide
Jin Mao Tower
Jin Mao Tower (near the Oriental Pearl TV and Radio Tower in Pudong) was the world’s 6th tallest building as of early 2008. Resembling across between a pagoda and a Manhattan skyscraper, it cost $540 million and has 88 floors and is home to the world’s highest hotel (the Hyatt) and the world's highest health club (at the Hyatt) and the world’s longest laundry shoot, which run’s from 87th floor of the Hyatt hotel to the its basement. It used to be home to the world’s highest hotel (the Hyatt) and the world's highest health club (at the Hyatt) until it was surpassed by the Hyatt next door in the Shanghai World Financial Center.
The Jin Mao Tower has been described as a super-sized modernist pagoda. It was designed with good fortune in mind. Eight and 88 are lucky number. The buildings height 414 meters (1,380 feet) is also auspicious. Among the buildings that are taller are the 508-meter-high Taipei 101 in Taiwan, the 452-meter-high (1,491-foot-high) Petronas Towers in Malaysia and 1,461-foot-high Sear's Tower in Chicago.
Opened in August, 1999, Jin Mao Tower was designed by the American firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, the same architects that designed the Sears Tower. The 555-room Grand Hyatt Shanghai occupies the top 35 floors of the building. Elevators race from the ground floor to the 88th floor in 49 seconds. Among the building’s problems are the fact that there are too few window-washing gondolas to keep the window clean.
The tower is open daily from 8:30am to 9:00pm. There is an observation deck with fine views of boats jostling for position in the Huangpu River below. The entrance fee is $6. Nearly the same views can he had for free from the Grand Hyatt, where there is floor to ceiling glass. Around Jin Mao is Luijiazui, the main financial center. Among the other notable buildings are the Pudong Shangri-La, a five-star hotel used by Tony Blair and other VIPs when they visit Shanghai.
In June 2007, Alain “Spiderman” Robert climbed Jin Mao Tower without permission. Afterwards he was arrested, spent five days in jail and was banned from entering China. A few months later he showed up in China again after being invited to climb Mt. Tianmen in Hunan Province by officials at the national park, where the mountain is located, to attract tourists to the area. Web Sites: Skyscraper Page ; Wikipedia ; Jin Mao Group ; Shanghai Grand Hyatt
Shanghai World Financial Center
Shanghai World Financial Center (next to Jin Mao Tower) is the world’s second highest building. Officially unveiled in August 2008, around the time of the Beijing Olympics, the 101-story structure is 492 meters high and cost $1.1 billion. Taipei 101 in Taiwan is the highest building the world. Taller buildings are expected to open in Dubai in 2009 and South Korea in 2012.
Designed by New York architect Kohn Peterson Fox and conceived and owned by Japanese developer Minoru Mori, the Shanghai World Financial Center has a bold, sharp-edged design has been called a Chinese samurai sword. While the building was under construction a huge circle near the top was replaced with a rectangle to avoid any comparisons with the rising sun.
Mori is one of Japan’s richest people. He bought the land on which the World Financial Center is built in 1994. The project was expected to be launched in 1996 and completed in 2001, but were held up by delays, the most crippling of which was the Asian financial crisis in 1997. Rents for offices are around $3 a square meter per day, the highest commercial rent charged in Shanghai. Lehman brothers scrapped its plans to have office in the building and Morgan Stanley reduced its space from eight floors to two after the economic crisis in 2008.
The observation deck, located on the 94th to 100th floors, is the world’ highest. Access costs $12. In September 2008 a sky bridge was opened on the 100th floor of the building. The 180-foot walkway tops the observation deck and has cantilevered glass walls and a glass floor and provides spectacular views of the Shanghai skyline and the Huangpu River.
Otherwise go through the Park Hyatt Shanghai and take the elevator up to 100 Century Avenue, a sprawling restaurant on the 91st floor with triple height atriums and six kitchens that serve dinners that cost over $100 per person and offer everything from Peking duck to pasta to sushi.
it is home of the Park Hyatt which is between the 79th and 93rd floors. The only thing above it is the observation deck. The views are stunning from almost every room and every window restaurant table in the hotel. The entrance, with its 15-meter high ceiling is on the ground level. Rates for the 174-room hotel start at $734. The 138 seat French restaurant has meals that go for about $200 per person. Web Sites: Wikipedia ; Shanghai World Financial Center official site ; Skyscraper Page
Image Sources: 1) CNTO (China National Tourist Organization; 2) Nolls China Web site; 3) Perrochon photo site; 4) Beifan.com; 5) developers, architecture firms, tourist and government offices linked with the place shown; 6) Mongabey.com; 7) University of Washington, Purdue University, Ohio State University; 8) UNESCO; 9) Wikipedia
Text Sources: CNTO, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Times of London, National Geographic, The New Yorker, Time, Newsweek, Reuters, AP, Lonely Planet Guides, Compton’s Encyclopedia and various books and other publications.
© 2009 Jeffrey Hays