It is December 1996 and, after a dinner of sake and sushi, Kiyoshi Yoshikawa, the elderly spokesman of Mori Building, is warming to his subject.
'In the 19th century, it was the Eiffel Tower in Paris. In the 20th century, it was the Empire State Building in New York. And in the 21st century, it will be the World Financial Centre in Pudong,' he said.
'Do you understand me? The 19th was the European century, the 20th belongs to the Americans and the 21st will belong to China.'
Sake or not, it was a surprising statement to come from a Japanese. But it explains why Mori's president and chief executive, Minoru Mori, has persisted with a project others would have abandoned.
For him, it is an attempt to build the most desirable office building in China's commercial capital and also to leave a landmark that will symbolise Shanghai to the world for decades to come.
Mr Mori bought the land-use rights in September 1994, for 50 years, and started the piling work in October 1997. Then came the Asian financial crisis and the fall of the Shanghai property market. The firm froze the project in 1999.
'We had completed our first project in Lujiazui, now the HSBC building, in 1986 and the occupancy rate was not good,' Mr Mori said yesterday. 'The vacancy rate in the area was poor. So we waited for the market to recover.'
