In a city of extremes, skyscrapers and teenagers grow taller as shares plunge

Moderation has never been popular in Shanghai. Over the years the city has been home to many types of excess, from opium and sing-song girls to Red Guards. At the moment the favourite is construction, and its partner, destruction. One of the newest and boldest examples of the immoderate is the Shanghai World Financial Center. After a false start at the time of the Asian financial crisis, this megalith has shot up quite suddenly across the river from the Bund. Billed as the world’s tallest building for roof height, but second to Taiwan’s Taipei 101 if you count pointy bits, this one is big by any standards. The original design had an enormous hole at the top, ostensibly to give high-flying dragons free passage — but bearing a passing resemblance to the rising sun of the Japanese developer’s national flag. This did not find favour with the Shanghai authorities. The round hole was made square and national sensitivities were satisfied. However, whereas the original design combined the menacing curve of a Samurai sword and the provocative circular emblem, the final design looks like something between a dog whistle and a very large bottle-opener. The locals favour the latter. To say that it is ugly does not really do it justice. It is actually very ugly. But worst of all, it has ruined the view of the Jin Mao Building, by contrast one of the most beautiful skyscrapers in the world. This wonderfully light, silvery structure which glows gold in the evening light is now overshadowed by a ghastly dark bottle-opener. Unfortunately, unlike most bottle-openers, nobody is going to forget it.