Shanghai’s Pudong is a for­mer swamp-turned-finan­­cial dis­trict with one of the best sky­lines in the world. There, you’ll find China’s tallest building—and the world’s second-tallest—the 124-sto­ry Shang­hai Tow­er. Its twist­ing archi­tec­ture appears tru­ly sci-fi when it dis­ap­pears like a frozen tor­na­do into a sheet of low-lying cloud.

The Shang­hai Tow­er is joined in Pudong’s clutch of inter­est­ing build­ings by the dis­tinc­tive 101-sto­ry World Finan­cial Center—rightly nick­named the “bot­tle opener”—as well as the hypo­der­mic-alike Ori­en­tal Pearl tele­vi­sion tow­er.

Shang­hai is renowned for its rooftop bars, and amid these build­ings, you’ll also find the Ritz-Car­l­­ton perched high in the IFC Build­ing. From its rooftop bar, Flair, you have a superb view of Pudong and across the Huang­pu Riv­er to the Bund, where Shanghai’s nick­name as “The Paris of the East” comes into view.