The Oriental Pearl Tower is a TV tower in Shanghai, China. The Oriental Pearl Tower is located at the tip of Lujiazui in the Pudong district.At 468 m (1,535 feet) high, it is the tallest tower in Asia, and the third tallest tower in the world after the CN Tower and the Ostankino Tower. Construction began in 1991 and the tower was completed in 1994. The tower features 11 spheres, big and small and the entire building is supported by three enormous columns that start underground. Visitors travel up and down the tower in double-decker elevators that can hold up to fifty people at the rate of seven meters per second. The design of the building is based on a verse of the Tang Dynasty poem Pipa Song by Bai Juyi about the wonderful sprinkling sound of a pipa instrument, like pearls, big and small falling on a jade plate. As a symbol of the economic reform in Shanghai, it was also the tallest structure in China before it was surpassed by the Shanghai World Financial Center.Like the Statue of Liberty in N. Y. , the Sydney Opera House and the Eiffel Tower in Paris, the Oriental Pearl Tower is also a landmark and a tourist attraction in Shanghai, which displays a spectacular view of an international metropolis with the Jin Mao Tower and the Shanghai World Financial Center.Seen from far, the Yangpu Bridge and the Nanpu Bridge seem like two Chinese dragons frolicking with the pearls of the Oriental Pearl Tower.