4. Ping An Finance Center, China
Looking ready to blast off from the streets of Shenzhen (Photo: Chris via Flickr / CC By 2.0)
More for the skyscraper enthusiasts rather than the general fan, located in the city of Shenzhen, not too far north of Hong Kong, the Ping An Finance Center’s most interesting quality may rest in its very normality: how this mega tall structure, completed in 2016 could just be regarded as the shape of many things to come.
For while it contains similar amenities as the other skyscrapers on this list – hotel rooms, restaurants, viewing platforms – the main purpose of this tower is to be a home for businesses, pure and simple. As its name suggests it was designed as a finance hub, home to the company that developed it: Ping An Life Insurance.
Though a recent build, it’s already attracted a number of daredevil climbers, including Malaysian photographer Keow Wee Loong, who scaled the incomplete building in 2015, and the Russian/Ukrainian team of Vadim Makhorov and Vitaly Raskalov, who documented their ascent for their urban exploration project Ontheroofs.