The 101-story, 492-meter-high Shanghai World Financial Center finally opened its doors last week, becoming the world's second tallest building after Taipei 101, which has a lower roofline but a higher spire. Designed by New York architects Kohn Pedersen Fox, it contains not only premium office space but also the world's highest hotel, the Park HyattShanghai—and dwarfs China's former tallest building, the 420.5m Jin Mao Tower next door. The project is the brainchild of leading Japanese property developer Minoru Mori, president and CEO of Mori Building Co., Ltd., and the man behind Tokyo's celebrated Roppongi Hills development. He first conceived the idea of the Shanghai project 15 years ago, and has remained committed to it ever since, despite years of delays caused by the Asian financial crisis in the late 1990s, as well as anti-Japanese sentiment that led to a change in the building's design. He spoke to NEWSWEEK's Duncan Hewitt in Shanghai. Excerpts: