Opened in 2008 and is Shanghai's second tallest building at 492 m. There are three viewing levels on floors 94, 97 and 100. The observation level allows you to look down on the tall neighboring Jinmao and Oriental Pearl Towers. However, a better view of the river and the Bund can be obtained from the lower sphere of the Oriental Pearl than from the SWFC. An alternative to the observation decks is to go to one of the hotel bars or restaurants on or near the 98th floor.

The Shanghai World Financial Center is a supertall skyscraper located in the Pudong district of Shanghai. It was designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox and developed by the Mori Building Company, with Leslie E. Robertson Associates as its structural engineer and China State Construction Engineering Corporation and Shanghai Construction General Co. as its main contractor. It is a mixed-use skyscraper, consisting of offices, hotels, conference rooms, and a ground-floor shopping mall. On 14 September 2007, the skyscraper was topped out at 492 meters , making it the 2nd tallest building in the world on completion , the tallest building in the world by roof height only, and the tallest in mainland China. The SWFC opened to the public on 28 August 2008, with its observation deck opening on 30 August. The observation deck offered views from 474 m above ground level. Park Hyatt Shanghai is the tower's hotel component, comprising 174 rooms and suites occupying the 79th to the 93rd floors, which at the time of completion was the highest hotel in the world. It is now the third-highest hotel in the world after the Ritz-Carlton, Hong Kong, which occupies floors 102 to 118 of the International Commerce Centre. The SWFC has been lauded for its design, and in 2008 it was named by architects as the year's best-completed skyscraper. In 2013, the SWFC was exceeded in height by the adjacent Shanghai Tower, which is China's tallest structure as of 2023. Together, The Shanghai World Financial Center, The Shanghai Tower and The Jin Mao Tower form the world's first adjacent grouping of three supertall skyscrapers.