Soaring to 632-metres (2,073 feet) I first spot the tower from my suite at the Jing An Shangri-La Hotel - some five miles away. From that distance it dwarfs its two nearest neighbours, the 420-metre pagoda-like Jin Mao Tower and the 492-metre, 101-storey Shanghai World Financial Centre, a building known locally as ‘the bottle-opener’. Up close, it is even more impressive; its serpentine form spiralling skywards with the sun glinting off its mirrored surfaced. I crane my neck back so far to try to see the top that I almost fall on my back.