SHANGHAI (Kyodo) Akio Yoshimura keeps binoculars in his office on the seventh floor of HSBC Tower in Shanghai so he can look out the window at a cement hull that is growing steadily taller after a shaky startup.

The binoculars will come in particularly handy in early 2008, when Yoshimura's new building, the Shanghai World Financial Center, tops out at 101 stories and 492 meters, becoming the tallest structure in China.

"For our company, for Shanghai, it's a dream," Yoshimura said.