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SHANGHAI · LUJIAZUI VIEW CHOICE

Which Lujiazui observation deck should you choose?陆家嘴观景台怎么选

Choose one, only on a clear day. Shanghai Tower 118F is the default for a high city panorama. Oriental Pearl adds the 259 m glass corridor; Jinmao 88F is the lower-priced indoor option in recent city price lists. Allow 2–3 hours from Lujiazui station through one deck and the riverfront. If haze hides the far bank or the seller cannot issue the ticket against your passport, walk the public riverfront free and keep the money.

Updated 27 September 2026.

01 · PICK ONE PRODUCT

What will the ticket add to the free river view?

Shanghai Tower · 上海中心大厦

Default when the horizon is clear. The 118th-floor Top of Shanghai is at 546 m and looks across the full city. Its operator routes visitors through a B1 exhibition before the lift. The city visitor listing gives daily hours of 08:30–22:00 with last entry at 21:00. Buy the standard 118F admission unless you also want the separately priced Sky632 art space on floors 125–126.

The 15 May 2026 city list put standard adult 118F at CNY 180 and the Sky632 combo at CNY 268. These are dated regular-price references, not a quote for your visit. The tower operator names Ctrip, Tongcheng, Meituan and Dianping as online channels and explicitly accepts a passport for real-name purchase. Match the name, document and date to the order; carry the original passport.

Oriental Pearl · 东方明珠

Choose the glass-floor experience and the landmark itself. The operator describes a 259 m transparent corridor and a 263 m main viewing floor. The 2026 city list names a Sky Walking + Art Toy Museum product at CNY 259 and a Sky Walking + Huangpu cruise product at CNY 279 as May regular-price references. A cruise is a separate timed boarding task; choose the museum product unless you want both and can secure the pier and sailing.

The 11 September city list names that campaign's bundles. For your visit date, match the seller's named product, included attractions, session and ID field before payment. If online passport entry fails, ask the tower's staffed ticket desk before using another seller.

Jinmao 88F · 金茂大厦

Choose an indoor deck at a lower cited standard price. Shanghai's visitor listing locates its 88th-floor observatory at 88 Century Avenue and describes a view across the river and down the building's hotel atrium. The May and September 2026 city lists both put adult observatory admission at CNY 120 as a regular-price reference. The outdoor Skywalk / 云中漫步 is a different, weather-dependent product; a standard indoor ticket should not be assumed to include it.

The city listed Ctrip, Meituan and Douyin for 2026 summer Jinmao packages, but did not document an overseas-passport checkout for the plain 88F ticket. Select 88F observatory for the actual date, inspect the ID and inclusion fields, and use the staffed visitor centre if the digital flow only accepts mainland ID. Leave the Skywalk out unless its own dated offer and conditions are clear.

02 · SAME HOTEL AND BACK

Make one tower a short Pudong outing

  1. Start at your hotel. Save its Chinese name and address. Route to Lujiazui / 陆家嘴 on Metro Line 2 or 14 using the Shanghai Metro planner; your interchange depends on the hotel. Add the walk from the station to the correct tower, rather than treating all three as one entrance.
  2. See the river first. Walk to the public Lujiazui riverside / 陆家嘴滨江大道 and look across to the Bund. This is the free view of the older bank. If distant buildings disappear in haze, stop here or move the paid deck to another clear day.
  3. Enter one named building. Shanghai Tower is 501 Yincheng Middle Road / 银城中路501号; follow the 上海之巅观光厅 signs to its public exhibition and ticket entrance. Oriental Pearl is 1 Century Avenue / 世纪大道1号; follow its signed tower ticket/entry route, not the tourist information desk at Gate 1. Jinmao is 88 Century Avenue / 世纪大道88号; follow 88层观光厅 signs and the ticket's visitor-centre directions. A nearby lobby is not proof that you have reached the correct attraction gate.
  4. Return to that same hotel. Come back to Lujiazui station after the deck. For an evening visit, run the last-train query for the full route and interchange to your hotel. If it no longer works, use a licensed taxi or ride-hail with the saved Chinese hotel address and the app's actual pickup point. The daytime Dongjin pedestrian ferry is not an evening return plan.
03 · BEFORE YOU PAY

Visibility, date and document decide the final choice

LOW CLOUD OR HAZE

Use the riverfront

A tower is worth paying for when you can see beyond the immediate Lujiazui blocks. Keep the free riverside walk and the Shanghai river-view comparison; move the deck to a clear part of the trip.

DATE OR SESSION SOLD OUT

Try a later session or another day

Look for the named 118F, Sky Walking bundle or 88F product on your date. A similarly named cruise, café, Sky632 or outdoor Skywalk bundle changes what you buy. Read the final inclusion and cancellation terms before payment.

PASSPORT FIELD FAILS

Use a staffed channel

Shanghai Tower publishes passport real-name purchase. The cited Oriental Pearl and Jinmao pages do not publish the same foreign-document flow. Ask the named operator or on-site ticket desk how that specific product takes your passport; if no valid path exists, use the free view.

SWFC IS ON YOUR SHORTLIST

Require a dated 94–100F offer

The World Financial Center had 94, 95, 97 and 100F viewing during a 2026 World Cup pop-up ending 31 August. Its operator site gives an observatory contact. For a post-August visit, obtain the dated public ticket, opening day and passport rule from that contact before adding it to this plan.

04 · SOURCES AND SCOPE

Use the venue product for the actual date

Sources checked 27 September 2026. The linked May and September city lists give dated regular-price references; use the seller's visit-date product before payment.

Return to the Shanghai city guide's Lujiazui stop for how this viewpoint fits the rest of a two or three-day visit. This page owns the choice between deck products; the city guide owns the whole trip.