Photo taken on Sept. 29, 2010 shows the exterior appearance of the Guangzhou TV tower in Guangzhou, south China's Guangdong Province. The 600-meter-high Canton Tower began its business operations on Wednesday. [Photo: Xinhua]

The 600-meter Guangzhou TV tower, which beats Toronto's CN Tower (553m) as the world's tallest TV tower, officially opened to tourists on Wednesday after six years in construction, local newspaper the Yangcheng Evening News reported.

The silver tower, with earthquake resistant design, is expected to be used for more than 100 years, and the official name "Guangzhou Tower" was selected from all the 180,000 drafted names.

According to Huang Jiatian, chairman of the Guangzhou New TV Tower Development Company, the total investment of the TV tower was nearly three billion yuan (441 million U.S. dollars).

Tickets to the tower were priced at 50 yuan, 100 yuan and 150 yuan based on different heights. A top-level ticket will offer an access to the 84th floor (433m) by the high-speed elevator that only takes one minute and a half to finish the ascent. Visitors can get a bird's-eye view there over the whole city.

The catering and entertainment facilities have still not opened to visitors, the newspaper reported.