Shanghai Tower Tickets: Prices, Floors and Is It Worth It

Shanghai Tower, the Jin Mao Tower and the Oriental Pearl Tower stand together in Pudong's Lujiazui financial district, and visitors regularly confuse which one to pick. Shanghai Tower is the newest and tallest of the three — the world's second-tallest building — distinguished by its twisting, spiraling glass facade, an engineering design specifically built to reduce wind load in a city that does get typhoon-adjacent weather.

Its observation deck sits around the 118th floor, among the highest publicly accessible viewing decks in the world, and includes a famously fast elevator ride that was, when the building opened, among the fastest in the world — part of the attraction for some visitors is genuinely the elevator itself, not just the view.

Observation deck entry generally runs roughly ¥180-200, noticeably more than either the Jin Mao Tower or Oriental Pearl Tower's equivalent decks, reflecting both its height and its newer, more premium presentation. Advance online booking is recommended, especially on weekends, though it's generally less of a hard sellout risk than Forbidden City tickets in Beijing — same-day tickets are usually available, just with potentially longer queues.

Some evening-specific tickets or combined packages pair the observation deck with a Bund walking tour or river cruise — worth considering if you want the day bookended by the same skyline from two different angles, ground level at the Bund and from 118 floors up.

If you only go up one Pudong tower, Shanghai Tower generally gives the best pure height and the most dramatic single view, but the Jin Mao Tower is noticeably cheaper and still gives a strong view of the skyline including Shanghai Tower itself, which the Shanghai Tower's own deck obviously can't show you. The Oriental Pearl Tower is the most recognizable landmark shape and the oldest of the three, with a more retro, slightly kitsch presentation that some visitors specifically enjoy for the nostalgia.

The honest trade-off: pay the premium for Shanghai Tower if height and modern presentation matter most to you; choose Jin Mao or the Pearl Tower if budget matters more and you're satisfied with a still-excellent, just slightly lower, view.