Blog posts about tall buildings are getting a bit tiresome, I know, but this building is really tall….it’s the Shanghai World Financial Center in the city’s Pudong District which sits across the Huangpu River from Puxi, or ‘old Shanghai.’ Old China Hands wax on about Pudong being nothing but a sandbar as recently as the early 90’s before it became the megalopolis it is today (and still growing), and the SWFC is now the biggest on the block, and 2nd tallest in the world by roof height. See the stock photo below, I think you’ll agree it looks like a beer opener.
Well, I was in China all this week and last night stayed in the Park Hyatt Hotel which occupies floors 79-93. My room was on the nosebleeding 84th floor, quite a view! The Hyatt hotel chain is apparently now following the Starbucks model, opening properties directly across the road from one another. In these photos taken from my room you see the 88-storey art-deco Jin Mao Tower, home to the Grand Hyatt (floors 53 to 87). The Hyatt has the market for highest hotels covered as these properties now rank #1 and #2 in the world. I have to think if Hyatt execs had a crystal ball 5 years ago they might not have been so ambitious given the current economic weakness. An eerily quiet breakfast buffet confirms my suspicion.
Too bad I was only there a single night, checking in after midnight and out before 9 the next morning, I didn’t even have time to relax on the swanky chaise lounge in my room.
I photoedited these shots into black & white because the smog and din of Shanghai is colorless anyway.
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