When Shanghai’s economic boom began some 20 years ago, Pudong, the district immediately east across the Huangpu River, was barely visible. Yet overnight, Pudong emerged as China’s face of the future, a cityscape dominated by skyscraper after skyscraper. Financial and commercial centers shifted east as well, and Shanghai’s new international airport joined the rush. Airport transfers were streamlined by the Maglev, the fastest train in regular commercial service in the world, which recently whisked me into Pudong in under eight minutes, reaching speeds of 270 mph.

Where the Maglev connects with Shanghai’s extensive Metro system, I checked in at the city’s newest 5-star accommodation, Kerry Hotel Pudong, Shanghai. Boasting Shanghai’s largest sports club, its own brew pub and seven executive floors worthy of the most demanding CEO, the Kerry is located between the new International Expo Centre and the Tomson Shanghai Pudong Golf Club. As a more youthful, “sports casual” member of the venerable Shangri-La chain, the Kerry is on the leading edge of upscale business travel in east Shanghai.

How was I to spend my free hours in Pudong, which lacks old Shanghai’s historic charms? Since the east side of the river is where Shanghai reached new heights, and since Pudong claims three of the world’s 20 tallest freestanding structures, I decided to attempt a half-day tower-to-tower trek of its manmade summits.

Hopping the Metro, I sped a few stops north into the heart of space-age Pudong. First stop, the Jin Mao Tower, an 88-story skyscraper sprouting like an enormous bamboo shoot, the world’s ninth-tallest building. The Jin Mao’s observation deck soars 1,115 feet above the fray and houses a modern relic of its own, the jersey and shoes of another famous Chinese tower, NBA star Yao Ming.

A second Pudong peak, just across Century Boulevard, is taller still. The Oriental Pearl TV Tower is a colossal Tinkertoy of globes and columns that has become the official icon of all Shanghai. Rising to 1,535 feet, it is the third-highest TV tower in the world, and its gargantuan spheres house a shopping mall, a revolving restaurant, three observatories and a basement museum devoted to Shanghai’s colonial past. From tip to toe, a two-hour tour.

My third ascent was to the summit of Pudong’s tallest building, the Shanghai World Financial Centre. For a few months after opening in 2008, this was the tallest building in the world, briefly claiming the Guinness World Record as the highest observatory on the planet. The Sky Walk observation deck on the 100th floor, at 1,555 feet, provided me a chance to tread lightly on a transparent plank, putting the entire dizzying Manhattan of the East at my feet.

By the time I visit again, Pudong will have raised the bar for urban trekkers even higher. Standing shoulder to shoulder with the Shanghai World Financial Centre, the new Shanghai Tower is slated to join Pudong’s pantheon of modern pagodas by 2014, breaking the 2,000-foot barrier for the first time.

Weblinks

China National Tourist Office
Jin Mao Tower
Kerry Hotel Pudong, Shanghai
Pudong New Area
Shanghai Maglev Train
Shanghai Metro
Shanghai New International Expo Centre
Shanghai Tower
Shanghai World Financial Centre
Tomson Shanghai Pudong Golf Club