At around 3pm, Thursday afternoon, the Shanghai Daily, the city's English-language quasi-newspaper, caught wind of Robert's feat and published a one-sentence story that read "A man dressed as Spiderman is climbing the Jinmao tower." Later in the afternoon, the Daily followed up its teaser by revealing that the man had reached the top of the building, climbed down and been arrested by Shanghai police.

Thursday evening, Shanghai officials revealed the climber to be none other than Alain Robert, the world's most famous skyscraper conqueror, the 44-year-old Frenchman who climbs buildings dressed as Spiderman without ropes, without gloves and without trepidation.

Starting his ascent at 2:20pm, it took Robert only 90 minutes to reach the top and climb down from the the 88-story 1,380-foot Jinmao Tower, the fourth largest building in the world. Robert alerted the press and consulted the French consulate in Shanghai prior to his attempt. Twice before, he has asked permission from the Chinese government to make the climb, and both times, authorities denied his request.

Robert told Reuters in an interview before the feat, "If you obey all the rules, you miss the fun."

Robert began what he calls his Solo Urban Climbing World Tour in 1994 by climbing the Citibank building in Chicago before heading to New York to climb the Empire State Building and the Brooklyn Bridge. The following year, French Spiderman conquered Europe, scaling skyscrapers in London, Frankfort, Milano and Barcelona. In 1996, he made his Asian debut when he climbed three Hong Kong buildings: the Far East Finance Center, the NEC Building and the ATV Asia Building. In the last decade, Robert has been making his way to the world's tallest buildings, climbing to the top and coming down to cheering crowds, photographers and, invariably, awaiting law enforcement officers.

According to witnesses at the Jinmao Tower Thursday, police pulled Robert off the base of the building before his feet touched the ground. However, before the climber was detained, authorities allowed him to wave to the crowd (sans Spiderman mask), strike some poses and take a bow. Police said Robert will be held for five days.

The French Spiderman became the third person to climb the Jinmao Tower. In 2001, Han Qizhi, a 31-year-old shoe salesman, clambered up the side of the Jinmao Tower in order to promote his shoe business in Hefei. Han said afterwards that he "was struck by a rash impulse."

In 2005, a Guizhou province man, Han Degui, made it 86 floors before coming down. Han was arrested and held for two weeks.

According to Robert's website, his next stop will be South Korea.