A Chinese man was detained by Shanghai police in the early hours of Wednesday after he climbed the tallest building in China, just two months after a French "spiderman" pulled the same stunt.

A 28-year-old man surnamed Zou, from Suining County in central China's Hunan Province, began to climb up the side of the Jinmao Tower in Shanghai, home to the Grand Hyatt Hotel, at about 6 p.m. on Tuesday, police said.

He reached the halfway point of the 88-storey building within an hour and arrived at his destination at 11 p.m., the Shanghai Municipal Public Security Bureau said in a statement posted on its website.

According to police, Zou is currently unemployed and was attempting to climb a high-rise building for the first time, which would explain his time of five hours, much longer than the half-hour ascent of French "spiderman" Alain Robert back in May.

Police forces were deployed inside the building and an air mattress was placed on the ground in case the climber fell, the statement said.

Zou stayed on the top of the building after he had finished the climb and police dragged him inside the building at about 1:30 a.m. Wednesday, the statement said.

Zou will be detained for a week on charges of "disrupting public order" - his stunt attracted a crowd of spectators causing a traffic jam, according to the statement.

Forty-four-year-old French veteran high-rise climber, Alain Robert, was detained by Shanghai police for five days and ordered to leave the country, after he, clad in a Spiderman costume, ascended to the top of the same building on May 31.

A total of five people have now climbed up the outside of the Jinmao Tower without approval since 2001, and all were detained by police.