Jinmao Tower Shanghai

Resembling an art deco take on a pagoda, this crystalline edifice is a beauty. It’s essentially an office block with the high-altitude Grand Hyatt renting space from the 53rd to 87th floors. You can zip up in the lifts to the 88th-floor observation deck, accessed from the separate podium building to the side of the main tower (aim for clear days at dusk for both day and night views). Alternatively, sample the same view through the fizz of a gin and tonic at Cloud 9 on the 87th floor of the Grand Hyatt (accessed on the south side of the building), and photograph the hotel’s astonishing barrel-vaulted atrium.