It's still sinking, but Shanghai's gradual descent into the sea is now at its slowest pace since 2000 thanks to massive engineering efforts to keep the city above water.

According to Reuters, the Shanghai Daily newspaper quoted the Shanghai Engineering Administrative Bureau on Tuesday as saying that the city sank only 7.5 millimeters (0.3 inches) last year. In 2005, the city sank 8.3 mm while in 2004, it sank 8.7 mm. Officials say however that more has to be done.

"Shanghai plans to control the yearly subsidence level to within seven millimeters by 2010," Liu Shouqi, of the city's land subsidence supervision department, was quoted as saying. Authorities have deployed sensors around the city to detect subsidence and cause water to be pumped underground to shore up the subsurface if necessary.

Reuters note that Shanghai, China's commercial and financial hub, is built on swamp land at the mouth of a powerful river, and lies a scant 4 meters (13 feet) above sea level on average. Its soft soil, massive development and overuse of underground water reservoirs have raised the threat of inundation.