There is a new way to look at Shanghai. It involves wind, glass, and raising your arms.
The Stage (白玉兰广场观景台) opened in 2025 on White Magnolia Plaza, 320 meters above the North Bund. Not yet in the guidebooks. Not yet crowded.
The elevator opens onto a theater. To the east, Lujiazui pulses in neon – the Oriental Pearl Tower, the Shanghai Tower, the Bottle Opener. To the west, the Bund glows in warm gold. Between them, the Huangpu River, dark and threaded with boats.
The platform has illuminated glass floors. Step on them and you float. The wind is constant. It pushes, reminds you of your smallness.
A glass barrier rings the deck. To shoot, you must raise your arms above it. I used a 24-120mm, braced against the gusts. The long exposures required patience. Shanghai simply glows, indifferent.
From 320 meters, what strikes you is density. Light accumulates – gold at street level, white in towers, red and green on the river. The haze softens everything into a watercolor that refuses to dry.
The Oriental Pearl Tower dominates, shifting between purple and blue. The Bund anchors it all – quiet, horizontal, warm.
I will remember the cold wind, the glass forcing my arms up, the reflections I couldn’t avoid. Photography here is not comfortable. You do not simply see Shanghai from The Stage. You earn it.
Location : 📍 Address : White Magnolia Plaza (白玉兰广场), 501 Dongdaming Road, Hongkou District, Shanghai
🚇 Access : Metro Line 12 to Tilanqiao Station, or Line 4 to Linping Road Station
Camera :
• Nikon Z6 III
Lens :
• Nikon 24-120mm Z f/4
You can order prints on my Prints page or by clicking the photos and the purchase link for my Getty Images exclusive photos and then choose “Buy the print”.
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