Jinmao Tower

Lonely Planet review

In a city of dubious contemporary architecture, the colossal Jinmao Tower stands out for its winning design, loosely inspired by a traditional Chinese subject, the pagoda. If you want to see Shanghai in a splendid nutshell, travel in the elevators (moving at 9.1m/second) to the 88th-floor observation deck, accessed from the separate podium building to the side of the main tower. Time your visit at dusk for both day and night views.

It's essentially an office block (owned by the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation) with the high-altitude Grand Hyatt renting space from the 53rd to 87th floors.

While you're there you might as well shoot off a postcard from what is officially the world's highest post office. Alternatively, sample the same view through the carbonated fizz of a gin and tonic at Cloud 9 - the world's highest bar at the time of writing - on the 87th floor of the Grand Hyatt and photograph the hotel's astonishing barrel-vaulted atrium, one of the world's tallest.