Oriental Pearl Tower: Retro-Futurist Icon of Lujiazui

The Oriental Pearl Tower (东方明珠, Dōngfāng Míngzhū) opened in 1994 and looks exactly like what 1994 thought the future would look like: eleven concrete spheres skewered on pink columns. It was the tallest thing in Shanghai for a decade and is still the signature shape in every skyline photograph.

As a viewpoint it has been comprehensively beaten by Shanghai Tower next door — the spheres are lower, the windows are smaller, and the ¥199 ($28) two-sphere ticket buys less than ¥180 ($25) does across the street. The glass-floor skywalk at 259 metres is fun for about five minutes.

What genuinely justifies a visit is the Shanghai Municipal History Museum in the basement, included with the three-sphere ticket. It reconstructs concession-era streets at full scale — a tram, a tea house, opium den dioramas, shop fronts — and explains how the foreign settlements actually functioned. It is dusty, unfashionable and far more interesting than the view.

Budget 90 minutes if you go up, plus 45 minutes for the museum. Or spend nothing, walk the elevated Lujiazui pedestrian ring for close-up photos, and put the money toward dinner. Address: 1 Century Avenue (世纪大道1号), Pudong.