The Oriental Pearl Tower

The Oriental Pearl Tower is the symbol of Shanghai, just like the Statue of Liberty in New York, Sydney Opera House in Sydney and Eiffel Tower in Paris. The Oriental Pearl Tower is a TV tower, located at the tip of Lujiazui in the Pudong District in Shanghai, by the side of Huangpu River, opposite the Bund of Shanghai. Built in 1991 and finished in 1994, with the principal frame height of 350 meters and the tower height of 468 meters, ranks first in Asia and third in the world among the TV towers.

The tower features 11 spheres, big and small. The two biggest spheres, along the length of the tower, have diameters of 50 m (164 ft) for the lower and 45 m (148 ft) for the upper. They are linked by three columns, each 9 m (30 ft) in diameter. The highest sphere is 14 m (46 ft) in diameter. The entire building is supported by three enormous columns that start underground. It looks like pearls dropped from the sky and scatters on the land of Pudong, glittering under the sunlight.

The Oriental Pearl TV Tower offers tourists and citizens of wonderful sightseeing and delicious meals, shopping and recreation, Huangpu River sightseeing, convention service, history display and tourism agency services. As a hot tourist site in China, the Oriental Pearl TV tower draws about 2.8 million visitors each year and was granted as the AAAA tourist sight by the State Tourism Office of China in 2001 for its super services.