Shanghai is well known both at home and from abroad not only as prosperous metropolis with rich cultural resources, but also for a number of new tourist attractions that have been developed in recent years. Standing on a boat on the Huangpu River, one can enjoy a panoramic view of the river and city skyline. The river sparkles with giant ships sailing busily by; the banks are filled with skyscrapers of different styles. On the modern Pudong side of the river, the futuristic Oriental Pearl TV Tower, with a giddy height of 468 meters, stands as the world's third tallest TV tower, after the 553-meter CN Tower in Toronto and the 535-meter Moscow TV Tower. It has already come to symbolize Shanghai and is honored as one of the ten bes t views in the city. The Jin Mao Mansion is another famous building in the Pudong New Area. Because of its brightly illuminated skyscrapers, Shanghai enjoys international fame as the "Pearl of the Orient".

Shanghai has always had a moderately healthy cultural scene, with cinemas showing foreign and Chinese films, and theatres featuring opera, dance, drama, acrobatics and puppets. To find out what's on and where, look out for the weekly "Around Shanghai" section of the China Daily, or read the "What's on" section of Shanghai Talk. Otherwise ask CITS to check the listings in a local newspaper for you. For many events it's worth either booking at the relevant venue in advance (try to have your requirements written out in Chinese) or getting CI...

Shanghai, called "Hu" for short, is a bustling metropolis located at the mouth of the Yangtze River. Connected with Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces in the west, the city is exposed to the East China Sea in the east. With a total area of 6,341 square kilometers (about 2,448 square miles) and a population of more than 13 million, Shanghai takes its place among the world's biggest, most booming urban areas.

The completion at 5pm on Sunday was a week ahead of the current schedule, despite of a fire in mid August that delayed construction for about three days.

A viewing loft in the shape of an upside-down ladder now can be seen clearly at the top of the building.

When completed, the tower will host office space, a hotel, conference rooms, observation decks and shops. The hotel component will open to the public with 175 rooms and suites in mid-2008 as the Park Hyatt Shanghai.

For six years after groundbreaking at the site in the mid-1990s, the project was little more than a hole in the ground: The Asian financial crisis had virtually obliterated demand for new office space in Shanghai.

After the project was revived in 2003, the builders had to alter a key design feature - a circular cutout near the top - after complaints that it resembled the rising sun on Japan's flag, a symbol reviled by many Chinese because of Japan's brutal occupation of the country in World War II.

And earlier this year, the tower's builder, the Mori Building Co of Tokyo, was criticized by Shanghai authorities for altering the project's name to "Shanghai Hills" to link it to its other marquee projects, the famed Roppongi Hills and Omotesando Hills complexes.

The company said the formal registered name of the project remained the Shanghai World Financial Center and "Shanghai Hills" was merely a branding strategy.

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