The Most Spectacular Viewpoints in Asia
7 places in 2 countries · updated 13 October 2026
In short: By our ranking, the most spectacular viewpoints in Asia are Tokyo Skytree (Japan), Canton Tower (People's Republic of China) and Tokyo Tower (Japan). The list covers 7 viewpoints in 2 countries. Japan has the most, with 5. Last updated 13 October 2026.
In East Asia, the art of looking at a view is old and deliberate. Japan has celebrated particular landscapes for centuries, naming its most admired scenes and composing gardens and poems around them, while the region's modern megacities have raised some of the tallest towers on Earth as observation platforms. The viewpoints here range from ancient scenic classics to engineering records, and from natural spectacles of water to skylines seen from a mountain.
Tokyo Skytree, completed in 2012, is the tallest tower in the world at 634 metres, and its observation decks look out over the whole Kantō plain and, on clear days, to Mount Fuji. Tokyo Tower, opened in 1958 and painted in orange and white, was inspired by the Eiffel Tower and remains a symbol of the city. In Guangzhou, the Canton Tower twists its slender lattice above the Pearl River. Victoria Peak, reached by a tram running since 1888, overlooks the skyscrapers of Hong Kong and the harbour below.
Japan's natural viewpoints are just as celebrated. Amanohashidate, a pine-covered sandbar crossing a bay on the Sea of Japan coast, is one of the Three Views of Japan, and visitors traditionally view it upside down through their legs so that it looks like a bridge to heaven. Kamikōchi, a high valley in the Northern Alps, frames the Hotaka peaks above the clear Azusa River. The Naruto whirlpools form in a narrow strait between Shikoku and Awaji Island, where tidal currents race between the Seto Inland Sea and the Pacific.
In this list
| # | Place | Type | Country | UNESCO |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tokyo Skytree | Observation tower | Japan | |
| 2 | Canton Tower | Observation tower | People's Republic of China | |
| 3 | Tokyo Tower | Observation tower | Japan | |
| 4 | Victoria Peak | Scenic viewpoint | People's Republic of China | |
| 5 | Amanohashidate | Scenic viewpoint | Japan | |
| 6 | Kamikōchi | Scenic viewpoint | Japan | |
| 7 | Naruto whirlpools | Scenic viewpoint | Japan |
01 Tokyo Skytree
Japan · 6.1 km from Tokyo35.710° N 139.811° E
Image by cegoh from Pixabay The form changes as it rises: a three-legged base gives way to a cylinder from about 350 m upwards. Its colour, officially Skytree White, is based on aijiro, a traditional pale indigo-white, and at night LED lighting alternates between Iki, a pale sky blue, and Miyabi, a deep purple. In a city that expects earthquakes, the tower is built around a central shaft of reinforced concrete that is tied to the steel frame only for the first 125 m; above that, oil dampers connect the two, and a tuned mass damper moves out of step with the structure to keep its centre of gravity steady. The designers say the system can absorb half the energy of a quake.
Did you know? The tower was originally planned at 610 metres; in October 2009 the design height was raised to the present 634 metres.
02 Canton Tower
People's Republic of China · 6.1 km from Guangzhou23.109° N 113.319° E
Image by AndyLeungHK from Pixabay It is the second-tallest tower in China and one of the tallest free-standing structures in the world. The main body is 450 m high and the antenna adds another 150; inside are TV and radio facilities, restaurants including a two-storey revolving one, gardens, cinemas and exhibition spaces. At night the whole tower glows: every node of the lattice carries its own LED light, individually controlled, so that colours and animations can run up and down its height, while using only a fraction of the energy normally allowed for facade lighting.
Did you know? The Bubble Tram on its roof, with 16 cabins circling between about 450 and 462 metres, has been recognised as the highest Ferris wheel in the world.
03 Tokyo Tower
Japan · 3.2 km from Tokyo35.659° N 139.746° E
Image by LittleMouse from Pixabay Its colours are set by aviation rules: bands of white and international orange, renewed roughly every seven years with some 28,000 litres of paint in a job that takes a year. It remained Japan's tallest structure until Tokyo Skytree was completed in 2012 and took over television broadcasting, though FM radio stations still transmit from the tower. It has become one of the most recognisable sights of the city, appearing again and again in films and television set in Tokyo.
Did you know? Hundreds of tobi, traditional Japanese steeplejacks skilled at working at height, helped build it, with at least 400 workers on site each day.
04 Victoria Peak
People's Republic of China · 5.3 km from Hong Kong22.275° N 114.144° E
Image by fabSB17 from Pixabay The hill was known in the colonial era as Mount Austin, and in Chinese as Tai Ping Shan. In the nineteenth century its cooler air drew wealthy Europeans, and from 1904 to 1930 the Peak Reservation Ordinance set it apart as a residential district barred to Chinese residents — a restriction that lasted in practice until 1947. The Governor kept a summer residence, Mountain Lodge, near the summit; the house is gone, but its site is now Victoria Peak Garden, a Victorian-style park with lawns and pavilions. The true summit is occupied by telecommunications equipment, so the classic views are taken from terraces and paths just below it.
Did you know? The tram climbs just under 400 metres in 1.365 km, on gradients as steep as 48 per cent.
05 Amanohashidate
Japan · 18.4 km from Maizuru35.570° N 135.192° E
663highland · CC BY 2.5 The name means roughly the bridge standing in heaven. According to the ancient gazetteer of Tango Province, the god Izanagi set up a ladder here to climb to the heavens, and it fell into the sea while he slept. Geologically the bar is young: it took shape only within roughly the last 7,000 years, built from sediment carried by rivers and currents, and it is said to be the only sandbar in Japan lying entirely inside a bay rather than facing the open sea. The pine avenue appears unchanged in Sesshū Tōyō's celebrated ink painting of the bay, now a National Treasure in the Kyoto National Museum.
Did you know? The scholar Kaibara Ekiken was the first to write the phrase 'Three Views of Japan', in a travel diary of 1689, treating the idea as already common.
06 Kamikōchi
Japan · 30.3 km from Matsumoto36.247° N 137.633° E
Image by noname from Pixabay Because the valley floor is so level, it holds marshes and ponds such as the Takezawa Marsh, Tashiro Pond and Myōjin Pond, fed by snowmelt and springs that stay cold even in midsummer. Larch forests line the river, and in October the larches turn gold against the first snow on the peaks. Japanese macaques forage along the banks. The centre of the valley is marked by Kappa-bashi, a narrow wooden suspension bridge with a view straight up to the Hotaka range; it appears in Ryūnosuke Akutagawa's 1927 novel Kappa, which set off a wave of domestic interest in the valley.
Did you know? The flat valley floor is thought to be an old lake bed, formed when an eruption of the Yake volcanoes dammed the Azusa, which once flowed toward Gifu.
07 Naruto whirlpools
Japan · 21 km from Tokushima34.238° N 134.651° E
Hellbuny · CC BY-SA 3.0 The current here is counted as the fastest in Japan and among the fastest tidal streams anywhere; only a handful of places, such as Saltstraumen and the Moskenstraumen in northern Norway, are faster. Because the flow reverses with the tide, the spectacle comes and goes on a schedule: the water runs in twice a day and out twice a day, and the vortices are strongest around those peaks rather than at slack water.
Did you know? The eddies spin both clockwise and anticlockwise, merging and splitting as they drift, and some are thought to reach more than 20 metres deep.
How this list is ranked
Places are chosen for how they look, not for how famous they are: each one has its own description and a photograph credited to its author. The order is a single world ranking that weighs the beauty of the place in curated photography together with how widely it is documented — the number of language editions of its encyclopedia article and how often that article is read in a year. The list is rebuilt as places are added, so the order and the counts on this page are always current.
Questions people ask
- What are the most spectacular viewpoints in Asia?
- On our list, Tokyo Skytree (Japan) ranks first, followed by Canton Tower (People's Republic of China) and Tokyo Tower (Japan).
- Which country has the most viewpoints in Asia?
- In our collection, the most come from Japan (5) and the People's Republic of China (2).
- What is the tallest tower in the world?
- Tokyo Skytree, at 634 metres, is the tallest freestanding tower in the world. Only the Burj Khalifa, a skyscraper, is taller among human-made structures.
- What are the Three Views of Japan?
- The Three Views of Japan are Matsushima Bay, the island shrine of Miyajima and the sandbar of Amanohashidate. The list has been recognised since the seventeenth century.
- What causes the Naruto whirlpools?
- Tides in the Seto Inland Sea and the Pacific are out of step, so the water level on either side of the narrow Naruto Strait differs. As the water rushes through, the fast current meets slower water and forms large whirlpools.
- How many viewpoints are on this list in Asia?
- The list covers 7 viewpoints in 2 countries. Japan has the most, with 5.