The tallest skyscraper in China, the Shanghai Tower, has finally opened its doors and is filling its offices.
The building cost 2.4 billion dollars, making it the most expensive ever built in China.
More than 60 businesses now occupy the offices of the building’s 128 floors after more than two years of bureaucratic complexities that prevented its renters from moving in. The 632-meter skyscraper should have opened its doors in mid-2015. Its size, complexity and regulations surrounding it slowed its construction despite the rapid rate of development of China and its desire to become a global financial center.
The renters are mostly businesses providing financial services and law firms. Important names in finance in China are there, for example Ant Financial, managed by Jack Ma, the billionaire owner of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.
On the upper floors of the building a project for a luxury hotel will be orchestrated by a subsidiary of Jin Jiang International Hotels, but “will not open before last year”, declared Cheng Luo, a spokesperson for the tower.