Shanghai Skyline: Free Viewpoints, Which Observation Deck, Light Times and the Ferry

The best free view of the Shanghai skyline is from the Bund (外滩, Wàitān), the riverside road on the west bank of the Huangpu River: it has no ticket and no closing time, and metro Lines 2 and 10 stop at East Nanjing Road station, a short walk away. From there you look straight across at the towers of Lujiazui. If you also want to go up, pick one deck: Shanghai Tower's observatory on floors 118 and 119 is the highest, and an adult ticket costs 180 yuan, while Jin Mao Tower's 88th floor is the cheapest at 120 yuan. The riverfront lights normally come on around 18:00 and go off at 22:00 in the cooler months, an hour later in summer. To cross the river, the public ferry costs 2 yuan, and the Dongfu Line runs until about 21:00, so you can ride it after dark.

The short answer: one evening on the Shanghai skyline

Most visitors need one evening for the skyline, plus an hour or two in daylight if they go up a tower. Here is the order that works best, because last entry at Shanghai Tower and the Oriental Pearl is 21:00, before the lights go off, and the Dongfu ferry stops at 21:00 too.

1. Late afternoon: go up one tower in Lujiazui. Get there an hour or so before sunset so you see the city in daylight, at dusk and with the lights on, all from one ticket. Shanghai Tower takes its last visitors at 21:00, and so does the Oriental Pearl Tower.
2. After dark: walk the Lujiazui riverside. The Xiaolujiazui riverside area is a public park space that is open 24 hours. From here you see the old Bund buildings lit up across the water.
3. Before 21:00: take the Dongfu ferry to Puxi. It runs from Dongchang Road pier in Pudong (浦东, the east bank, where the towers are) to Fuxing East Road pier on the Puxi side (浦西, the west bank, where the Bund is). The crossing is short and costs 2 yuan, not a cruise fare.
4. Until the lights go off: walk north along the Bund. The Bund runs along Zhongshan East 1st Road from Yan'an East Road in the south to Garden Bridge (外白渡桥, Wàibáidù Qiáo) in the north. Leave from East Nanjing Road station, and check your last train before you start.

You can also run the evening the other way round: Bund first, ferry to Pudong, then a tower. That order works if you only want the deck in the dark, but you lose the daylight view, and you have to reach the tower before last entry.

If you are short on time, skip the tower. The free view from the Bund is the main thing, and you can drop the deck without missing much. If you only have money for one paid thing, a deck gives you more than a river cruise, because the ferry already puts you on the water for 2 yuan.

Free viewpoints: the Bund, Lujiazui, the North Bund and West Bund

You do not need a ticket to see the skyline well. Since the end of 2017, the riverside in central Shanghai has been one continuous public path, about 45 kilometres from Yangpu Bridge to Xupu Bridge. Four stretches of it are worth knowing.

The Bund: the classic view of Lujiazui

The Bund is an open street with no gate and no ticket, open all day and night. Walk up the steps to the raised riverside promenade and you look east across the Huangpu River at the Lujiazui towers: the round pink balls of the Oriental Pearl Tower, Jin Mao Tower with its stepped top, the Shanghai World Financial Center with the open slot at its top, and the twisting Shanghai Tower, the tallest of the group. Behind you are the old stone banks and trading houses, built between 1920 and 1936. The city tourism board's Bund page lists it as an open area with no ticket.

The stretch between East Nanjing Road and Garden Bridge is the most crowded, and the most photographed. If the middle is packed, walk south toward Yan'an East Road. The view is almost the same, and there is more room at the railing.

The Lujiazui riverside: the view back at the Bund

On the Pudong side, the Xiaolujiazui scenic area (小陆家嘴, Xiǎo Lùjiāzuǐ, "little Lujiazui") covers the 1.4-kilometre southern stretch of the riverside walk called Binjiang Avenue, the riverside park and Lujiazui Central Green, and it is open from 0:00 to 24:00. This is where you see the Bund the way it looks in postcards: a long line of lit old buildings across the water.

The towers are right behind you here, so you can't fit them in a photo from this side. Come here for the Bund view, and for the walk between the tower bases and the ferry pier. Above the road junction near Lujiazui metro station is a large circular pedestrian bridge. It is a popular spot for looking up at the towers, but it has no river view.

The North Bund: a quieter angle

Just north of Garden Bridge, the Hongkou riverside (also called the North Bund, 北外滩, Běi Wàitān) runs for 2.5 kilometres from Garden Bridge east to Qinhuangdao Road, in four connected sections. Because it ends at the same bridge where the Bund ends, you can walk straight from one to the other.

The North Bund International Cruise Terminal area is open from 06:00 to 22:00, and it is a good spot to frame Lujiazui together with the terminal's maritime tower. You see the towers from the north and at an angle, so they line up differently than from the Bund. It is usually much less crowded, which makes it a good fallback on busy nights.

West Bund (Xuhui Riverside): a long walk, not a close view

Xuhui Riverside, also called the West Bund (西岸), has 11.4 kilometres of riverfront. It was once home to some of Shanghai's earliest steel, coal, grain and oil industries, and it opened to the public at the end of 2017. It is far upriver from Lujiazui, so the towers look small on the horizon. Go for a long walk or bike ride along a former industrial waterfront, and treat the skyline as a bonus. If the skyline is your main goal, the Bund or the North Bund is a better use of your evening.

For the metro stops for each spot, see the metro section below.

Which observation deck to choose

Four towers in Lujiazui have public decks, and they are all within a few minutes' walk of each other. The table below compares opening hours and ticket prices for Shanghai Tower, Jin Mao Tower and the Oriental Pearl Tower.

Shanghai Tower: the highest deck

The Top of Shanghai observatory (上海之巅, Shànghǎi zhī Diān, "the summit of Shanghai") is on floors 118 and 119 of Shanghai Tower. It is open every day from 8:30 to 22:00, with last entry at 21:00. An adult ticket is 180 yuan, a child ticket 90 yuan and a senior ticket 120 yuan, and a combined ticket with the Sky632 art space costs 268 yuan.

The ticket office is at 501 Middle Yincheng Road. This is the deck to pick if you want the highest view and the other towers below you in the frame.

Jin Mao Tower: the cheapest, with the best side view of the other two

Jin Mao Tower's observation deck is on the 88th floor, 340.1 metres up, at 88 Century Avenue. It is open daily from 8:00 to 22:00; the official listing gives no last-entry time, so confirm it at the counter if you arrive late in the evening.

Tickets cost 120 yuan for adults, 60 yuan for children between 1 and 1.3 metres tall, 100 yuan for seniors aged 70 and over, and 90 yuan for students up to undergraduate level. Children under 1 metre or aged 3 and under go free with a guardian. The deck is lower than the two taller towers next door, so you look across at them rather than down on them. Many people like that view better, because you see both towers side by side.

Oriental Pearl Tower: the icon, but you can't see it from inside

The Oriental Pearl TV Tower is 468 metres tall and opened in 1995. It is open daily from 8:00 to 22:00, with last entry at 21:00. In late 2024, the listed price for a tower-only sightseeing ticket was 199 yuan. The tower also sells packages: sightseeing plus the Art Toy Museum for 259 yuan, or sightseeing plus a river cruise for 279 yuan. Check the current tower-only price and child tickets on the tower's official WeChat service account, 东方明珠 (Dōngfāng Míngzhū, "Oriental Pearl").

The Pearl is the building most people want in their skyline photo. If you go up it, it is the one tower you won't see. It suits families who want things to do inside the tower, such as the Art Toy Museum in the package ticket, more than people who only want the view.

Shanghai World Financial Center: reopened, but check the current hours

The observatory at the Shanghai World Financial Center (SWFC) reopened in summer 2025 after three years closed. Its top level is the 100th floor, where a glass walkway sits 474 metres up, and the express lift gets there in 66 seconds. During its 2025 reopening period, which ran until 30 November 2025, it was open 10:00 to 22:00 with last entry at 21:30, and tickets were sold through the 留涟 (Liúlián) WeChat account. Check that account for current hours and prices before you go. The observatory entrance is the SWFC West Gate on Dongtai Road.

Which one should you pick?

• One deck, best view: Shanghai Tower. It is the highest, and it puts Jin Mao, the SWFC and the Pearl below you.
• Lowest price: Jin Mao, at 120 yuan for an adult.
• Travelling with kids: the Oriental Pearl, for the things to do inside, or Jin Mao, for the child ticket.
• Glass floor at the top: the SWFC, if it is open on your dates.

Do not do two decks on one trip. The views from neighbouring towers are similar, and the money is better spent on a river cruise or a good dinner.

Passports and buying tickets

Buying at the ticket counter with your passport is the most reliable way. In a 2024 promotion, Shanghai Tower's counter accepted a valid passport or Chinese ID card on site. The towers sell online mainly through Chinese-language WeChat accounts, and a foreign passport may not be accepted there, so confirm before you pay online. If you prefer to book ahead in English, deck tickets are also listed on Klook and Trip.com. Check that the listing names the exact tower and floor, and how you get in on the day.

Lights, sunset and the best time to go

The lights on the Bund, the North Bund and the Lujiazui core area are switched on and off by the city's Landscaping and City Appearance Administration Bureau. The usual pattern, based on its notices, is:

• Cooler months: on at 18:00, off at 22:00.
• Summer: on at 19:00, off at 23:00.
• Public holidays and big events: on at 18:00, and kept on until 23:00.
• Lunar New Year's Eve: in 2024 the core area stayed lit until 00:15 the next morning.

The bureau changes these times at short notice during heatwaves, when power demand is high, or for major events. In the cooler months, plan to be on the riverside by 21:00 so you have a full hour with the lights on.

Sunset and daylight

The skyline is worth seeing twice: once in daylight, when you can see how close the towers are to the old city, and once lit up. The easiest way to get both is to go up a deck before sunset and stay until dark. Sunset is earlier in winter and later in summer, so check the time for your dates on your phone's weather app and arrive about an hour before.

The weather matters more than the time. On low-cloud days the top floors of Shanghai Tower can sit inside the cloud, and a hazy day flattens the view from every deck. Look at the sky before you buy a ticket. If the tops of the towers are hidden, stay on the ground and spend the money another day. The free riverside view still works in light rain.

On the river: the public ferry or a cruise

You can see the skyline from the water in two ways: the public ferries that local people use to cross the river, and the sightseeing cruises.

The public ferry: the cheapest way onto the water

The Huangpu River has 17 regular ferry lines and about 34 piers, and a single ride costs 2 yuan for a person on foot. You can buy a ticket at the pier, or pay with the Shanghai transit QR code in Alipay or WeChat, a Shanghai public transport card or a combined day pass, and the QR code can be linked to a foreign card. Two lines matter for the skyline:

• Dongfu Line (东复线): Dongchang Road pier in Pudong to Fuxing East Road pier in Puxi. It runs from 7:15 to 21:00 on the Dongchang Road side and from 7:00 to 21:00 on the Fuxing Road side, so it is the one to use after dark.
• Dongjin Line (东金线): Dongchang Road pier to East Jinling Road pier, at the south end of the Bund. It takes foot passengers only and runs only in the daytime, until about 18:15 from Dongchang Road and 18:30 from East Jinling Road.

The Dongchang Road pier is at 3510 Binjiang Avenue, on the Lujiazui riverside, and the latest timetables are on the 上海轮渡 (Shànghǎi Lúndù, "Shanghai Ferry") WeChat account. On holidays some lines stop for part of the day: during the 2026 National Day holiday, the Dongjin Line was suspended every day from 12:00 until the end of service.

The ferry is a working boat, not a tour. Stand at the rail and you get the same view as a cruise, just for a shorter time. For the price, it is the best way to see the skyline from the water. The Shanghai government's English page on Huangpu River ferries and cruises lists the lines and fares in one place.

The Huangpu River cruise

The Huangpu River Cruise leaves from Piers 1 and 2 at Shiliupu (十六铺, Shíliùpù) and turns back at Yangpu Bridge. Prices depend on the season:

• Peak season (26 February to 25 November): 120 yuan for a day cruise, 150 yuan for a night cruise.
• Off-peak (26 November to 25 February): 100 yuan for a day cruise, 120 yuan for a night cruise.
• Public holidays: 150 yuan.
• Children and seniors: children under 1.3 metres ride free, and children from 1.3 to 1.5 metres and people aged 70 and over pay half price.

Buy tickets on the 浦江游览 (Pǔjiāng Yóulǎn, "Huangpu River Cruise") WeChat account or at the Shiliupu ticket office. Shiliupu Pier 1 is at 481 Zhongshan East 2nd Road, open to the public from 10:00 to 22:00; in the evening it mainly handles individual cruise passengers. The Oriental Pearl Tower runs its own boats, and a first-class seat on those costs 130 yuan on its own. Shiliupu is close to the old city, so it is easy to combine a cruise with an afternoon at Yu Garden.

Choose the night cruise if you want a longer, seated trip past both banks while the lights are on. Choose the ferry if you just want to cross and see the view for a few minutes. With small children, the cruise is calmer, because the ferry deck can get crowded at commuter times.

The Bund Sightseeing Tunnel

The Bund Sightseeing Tunnel, a light-show train under the river, is still operating in 2026, and it closes on holiday evenings: during the 2026 National Day holiday it was shut from 16:00 to 21:30 each day. Check the hours and ticket price posted at the entrance. The ferry is cheaper and gives you an actual view.

Getting to each viewpoint by metro

Shanghai metro gates accept contactless foreign bank cards, so you can tap in without buying a ticket first. Our China metro guide covers paying and fares in more detail.

• The Bund: East Nanjing Road station, Lines 2 and 10. Exits 1, 2, 4 and 7 come up on East Nanjing Road; the others are on side streets such as Middle Shandong Road, Tianjin Road and Middle Henan Road. Take an East Nanjing Road exit and walk east along East Nanjing Road to the river.
• Lujiazui and the decks: Lujiazui station, Lines 2 and 14. Exits 1 and 2 are at Century Avenue and Lujiazui Ring Road, exits 3 to 7 at Century Avenue and Middle Yincheng Road, and exit 8 at Middle Yincheng Road and Huayuan Shiqiao Road. For the SWFC, use exit 8 and walk.
• Shiliupu cruise piers: Yuyuan Garden station on Lines 10 and 14 is the stop for the old city around Yu Garden, and Shiliupu is a walk east toward the river from there.
• The North Bund: International Cruise Terminal station on Line 12 is the closest, and Tilanqiao station, also on Line 12, is nearby; check the best exit on the Shanghai metro map.
• West Bund (Xuhui Riverside): use Longhua Middle Road station on Lines 7 and 12, or Yunjin Road station on Line 11; check the exit for the part of the riverside you want on the metro map.

To plan these trips before you go, the WaysChina app is an offline metro and itinerary helper: it shows the route, transfers and last trains without needing data.

The last train home

Last trains are not the same across the network: each line and each station has its own times, and stations stop selling tickets about 3 minutes before their last train. Lines 1, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 13 run later on Friday and Saturday nights, but Line 2, which serves both East Nanjing Road and Lujiazui, does not. From East Nanjing Road on a Friday or Saturday night, Line 10 is the later option. If your hotel is far out, check your last train on our Shanghai last trains page before the lights go off, not after.

The hop-on, hop-off bus

The City Sightseeing double-decker buses (都市观光, Dūshì Guānguāng) pass the Bund and Lujiazui. A one-day ticket costs 60 yuan and is valid for 24 hours on every line from first use, and a two-day ticket costs 80 yuan. Tourist Line 2 runs Nanjing West Road – Lujiazui – North Bund – the Bund – City God Temple from 09:00 to 20:30, and some lines run a night service between 16:30 and 20:30. You can buy tickets at the stops, on the operator's WeChat mini program, or on platforms such as Meituan, Ctrip and Klook; a screenshot of a ticket is not accepted on board. The bus is useful if walking between the viewpoints is hard for you. The open top deck can be cold at night.

Holiday crowds on the Bund

On ordinary weeknights the Bund is busy but comfortable. On the big holidays, mainly the National Day "Golden Week" from 1 October and New Year's Eve, it is a different place, and the police run crowd control every year. The exact times change each year and are announced by the Shanghai Public Security Bureau shortly before each holiday, so check the latest notice before 1 October or 31 December.

Recent examples show what to expect:

• Station closures: for National Day 2026, the exits of East Nanjing Road station (Lines 2 and 10) and the Line 14 entrances at Yuyuan Garden station were closed from 20:00 on 30 September and from 16:00 until the end of service every day from 1 to 7 October; Line 10 at Yuyuan Garden stayed open, and People's Square and Lujiazui had entry limits when crowds built up. On New Year's Eve 2025, the same closures started at 20:00.
• One-way walking: during National Day 2025, police held people back, let them through in waves and set one-way loops on East Nanjing Road, Zhongshan East 1st Road and the steps up to the riverside.
• No cars: on the lights nights of National Day 2026, from 16:30 to 23:30, no vehicles were allowed into the Bund area or the Lujiazui core area. A taxi or DiDi can't drop you at the river on these nights.
• Ferry and tunnel: the Dongjin ferry stopped from 12:00, and the Bund Sightseeing Tunnel closed from 16:00 to 21:30.

If you are in Shanghai on a holiday, see the lights on a different night if you can. If you can't, go to the North Bund instead of the Bund itself. The Lujiazui riverside is not a quiet alternative on these nights: Lujiazui station can have entry limits, the Lujiazui core area is closed to cars, and the drone ban covers it too. If you still want the main Bund promenade, arrive before 16:00 if you want the main promenade, and plan to leave on foot to a station further away, such as one stop along the line. Our Golden Week guide covers the wider holiday rush.

Drones

Leave the drone in your bag. On holidays the police ban drones over the Bund, East Nanjing Road and the Lujiazui core area, and use counter-drone equipment. Outside holidays, small drones may only fly below 120 metres in the green zones on the city's official airspace map, and everywhere else is controlled airspace; check the official low-altitude flight platforms before any flight. During big events the whole city can be closed to drones, as it was from 15 to 20 July 2026 for the World Artificial Intelligence Conference. Around other big events, such as the China International Import Expo, light times and drone rules can change, so check the latest city notices if your visit falls in that week.

A little background

The buildings along the Bund, in many different Western styles, went up between 1920 and 1936, and that mix of styles is why the street is called a "museum of international architecture". Across the river, almost everything you see is much newer: the Oriental Pearl Tower opened in 1995. So from the Bund you see 1920s and 1930s stone buildings on your side of the river and glass towers on the other.

Summary

For the Shanghai skyline, start with the free view: walk the Bund from East Nanjing Road station and look across at Lujiazui. If you want height, choose one deck, Shanghai Tower for the highest view or Jin Mao for the lowest price, and arrive about an hour before sunset so you see both daylight and lights. Cross the river on the 2-yuan Dongfu ferry before 21:00, and be on the riverside by about 21:00 so you get an hour before the lights go off. Avoid the Bund on National Day and New Year's Eve if you can, and check your last train before you set off. For the rest of your stay, see our Shanghai travel guide, the 3-day Shanghai itinerary and our Shanghai food guide for dinner near the river. For skylines in Beijing, Guangzhou, Hong Kong and Chongqing, see China's modern landmarks.

Last updated: November 2026