A Chinese New Year Holiday Spent Atop Shanghai

I previously shared a photo from near the top of what was then Shanghai's tallest building. Vadim Makhorov went higher. Much higher. And there is not an elevator to where he went.

He recently wrote:

I dreamed to visit Shanghai for a while. One of the main sights for us was Shanghai tower, a huge skyscraper in the city center, which currently is under construction. The height of it will be 632 meters. When the construction will be completed, the tower will become the highest building in China and world’s second high building after Burj Khalifa (if not to mention TV tower in Tokyo, which is only 2 meters higher).

Ten days ago, during the celebration of Chinese New Year, the entire country was resting – all the people had vacations, so as the builders. Everybody was squibbing in their neighborhoods and enjoying the holidays. For us, it was perfect time to climb the tower and a crane jib above it (the highest point is about 650 meters).

That many people were away for the holidays is key. According to his video, Makhorov did not take a conventional route into the building.




And he did not take conventional photos.

Photo by Vadim Makharov from here

See Makharov's posts here (HT to Evan Osnos) and here (HT to Andrew Webster) for more of his story and photos. The dramatic video is worth watching in HD.