By Susan Kasera

It towers 600m tall, majestic because of its grid structure, yet at the same time graceful as a lady, standing at the Pearl River waterfront.

If you have fear for heights, then you may want to view this magnificent work of architecture for across the river, but you will surely miss out on all it has to offer.

Canton Tower in Guangzhou city literally draws your attention to it and holds it captive. Known locally as the ‘slender waist’, the tower is breathtaking by night.

With about 7,000 LED lighting on the outer core, the tower glows, radiating the seven colours of the rainbow that change intermittently after every several seconds, injecting vigour and vitality to the city’s already well-lit skyline.

I first saw the tower while on a night cruise on the Pearl River that meanders through the city before it flows into the South China Sea.

"What’s that colourful building," I asked Yunfeng Zheng, a journalist with China Radio International who was accompanying visiting media practitioners from Kenya, Tanzania, South Sudan, Zimbabwe and Liberia. "Oh that’s the TV tower. We get to go there tomorrow," he said. "The 2010 Asian games were broadcast from there," Zheng, whose English name is Vincent, added.

I was so glad the tower was on our itinerary. Directed by the city’s development strategy, the building showcases Guangzhou’s determination to be a modern metropolis and scores another tourism highlight for the city.

The Pearl River or Mother River of Guangzhou presents enchanting scenery when night falls. Chinese love to light up their buildings and all the neon lights, including those of the Canton Tower, are reflected on the river to present such a beautiful sight.

Our Chinese guide welcomed us to this historic and cultural building. Standing on the tower’s base on the ground floor, she asked us to look up. At that point one can see how the tower twists from the ‘waist’. And that was just the beginning of a thrilling tour that lasted about 30 minutes.

Our guide then herded us into the high-speed lifts — there are six of them — that spirited us up to the 108th floor. The ride took us just over a minute. On this and the floor below, there is a hanging observation deck. The floors are of fully transparent glass so you can see all the way down.

The experience is truly not for the faint hearted. I decided to give it a try and stepped onto the deck thinking if this was to be my last day, so be it. I survived the ordeal, but the experience left my system full of adrenalin. It was exhilarating and it took a few minutes for my heartbeat to normalise.

TELESCOPES

Also on these two floors are fitted with panorama telescopes through which visitors can get a 360-degree view of the city landscape. The telescopes have touch screens that provide information on a specific location one focuses on like the Guangzhou Bridge, Asian Games Park, Guangzhou Opera House, Guangdong Museum and Guangzhou Library.

According to the Canton Tower official website, the tower is supported by a central concrete core and is reinforced by an outer steel frame structure, which consists of 24 steel columns and a continuous series of 46 oval-shaped rings of different sizes and single directional diagonals.

The tower briefly held the title of tallest completed tower in the world, replacing the CN Tower before being surpassed by the Tokyo Sky Tree this year.

The tower has various functions including but not limited to recreational area, observation and leisure areas, restaurants with one that is two-level and revolves and has a sitting capacity of 460, retail stores and exhibition hall as well as parking for 600 cars. It provides venues for meetings, exhibitions, banquets and events.

Designed by Dutch architects Mark Hemel and Barbara Kuit of Information Based Architecture, it is the tallest TV tower in the world. Its main frame measures 450m and its antenna mast 150m.

It took five years to build and was opened to the public on October 1, last year.

Located at the core of the city, the tower is easy to access either by train, bus, subway, waterways or by car.