Oriental Pearl Tower

The Oriental Pearl Radio & Television Tower is a TV tower in Shanghai. It is located in on the banks of the Huangpu River, in Lujiazui, Pudong and is opposite of the Bund. Its main architects were Jiang Huanchen, Lin Benlin, and Zhang Xiulin. Construction began on July 30, 1991, and the tower was completed on October 1, 1994, before being put into use on May 1, 1995.

Planning
On August 25, 1983, the idea of building a new TV tower was first brought up in a broadcast considering the overwhelming situation of the existing TV transmission tower at that time. On November 17 of the same year, a clear thought of building a TV tower of approximately 400 m high around Lujiazui area was presented in "The Sixth Five-Year Plan and Seventh Five-Year Plan for the Development of Shanghai's Radio and Television Industry and the Vision for the Next Ten Years."

On March 25, 1984, the proposal of building the new TV tower is officially made in the Congress report. Later in 1984, the proposal was approved. After repeated investigation and research, the site location was finalized to between Lujiazui and Pudong Park, with the consideration of echoing with the Bund on the other side of the Huangpu River.

On August 23, 1984, the Shanghai Radio and Television Bureau officially made the site selection report. In October 1986, the report was finalized and submitted to the National Planning Commission, with the building height initially set at 450 m. In January 1987, the report was approved. In January 1988, the Shanghai Radio and Television Bureau submitted a feasibility report for the TV tower and got approved in July.

In May 1988, three top design institutes in China were invited to participate in a design contest for the TV tower. In September 1988, a total of 12 designs were submitted and evaluated, and the "Oriental Pearl" design from East China Architectural Design Institute was finally chosen. With the consideration of the location and historical role of the tower, the designer chose to connect 15 spheres of different sizes with pillars as the main tower body. The artistic conception came from the sentence "big and small pearls falling on a jade plate(大珠小珠落玉盘)" of a poem "Pi Pa Xing(琵琶行)" by Bai Juyi, intended to emphasize the oriental cultural atmosphere and the artistic sentiment of Shanghai.

Construction and opening
On July 30, 1991, the foundation of the Oriental Pearl TV Tower was officially laid and construction started.

On December 14, 1993, the main tower, which measured 350 m, was capped. The construction only took 27 months, which was 105 days shorter than the expected time. At 12:12a.m. on May 1, 1994, the steel antenna with a length of 110 m and a weight of 450 MT was successfully installed in position after 11 days of ascension. On October 1 of the same year, the ground floor interior was completed. The sightseeing facilities and lighting system started operating, and construction was marked as completed

On May 1, 1995, the ribbon cutting ceremony of the Oriental Pearl TV Tower was held, and the tower was officially opened to the public. The first signal was launched, which broadcast 5 sets of TV programs and FM radios to the public.

Awards
In 1995, 15 foreign heads of government visited the tower. At the end of the year, the Oriental Pearl TV Tower was rated as one of the Top Ten New Landscapes in Shanghai.

In 1996, another 35 foreign heads of government and 30 groups of foreign minister-level government officials visited the tower.

In 1999, the Oriental Pearl TV Tower won the first prize of Shanghai Excellence of Design Award and China Civil Engineering Zhan Tianyou Award.

In May 2001, the Shanghai Urban History Development Exhibition Hall was opened at ground level of the Oriental Pearl TV Tower.

Since May 8, 2007, the tower has been listed as a AAAAA Tourist Attraction.

On January 6, 2020, the Oriental Pearl TV Tower was rated as one of the Top Ten New Landmarks in Shanghai by the China Architectural Culture Research Association.

Observation levels
The tower has fifteen observatory levels. The highest (known as the Space Module) is at 351 m. The lower levels are at 263 m (Sightseeing Floor) and at 90 m (Space City). There is a revolving restaurant at the 267 m level. The project also contains exhibition facilities and a small shopping center. There is also a 20-room hotel called the Space Hotel between the two large spheres. The upper observation platform has an outside area with a 1.5 in glass floor.