BEIJING: Shanghai World Financial Centre, the biggest skyscraper in Chinese mainland and the third-tallest in the world was officially inaugurated on Thursday in the booming eastern metropolis.
The 492-meter-high building is in the Lujiazui area of Pudong District, the "Wall Street of China," overlooking the Huangpu River.
The Shanghai World Financial Centre is the biggest skyscraper after Burj Dubai and Taipei 101.
It covers an area of 3,81,600 square meters and it has 101 floors above ground and three floors underground, according to its builder, the Shanghai Construction Group.
The first two floors are commercial, the third to fifth floors are conference centres, seventh to 77th floors will house offices and 79th to 93rd floors will be Park Hyatt Shanghai hotel, which is expected to test run on Monday.
The 94th to 100th floors are an observatory for sightseeing, which is the tallest of its kind in the world, and will be open to tourists on Saturday.
The entree fee of the observatory, which is expected to receive 3 million tourists annually, ranges from 110 yuan (16 USD) to 150 yuan, Xinhua news agency reported from Shanghai.
The construction of the skyscraper began in 1997 but was suspended amid the southeast Asian financial crisis and again resumed in 2003.
"Few people thought Pudong would be a financial centre when we decided to invest here," said Minoru Mori, the founder of Mori Building, the skyscrapers investor.
