Abstract: The development of Sea Surface Topography (SST) is briefly introdued in this paper. Then the slope of the Mean Sea Level (MSL) and its precision are calculated through the comparisons with geometric levelling. Meanwhile, a new method of computing the SST, which uses the hydrographie data in Chinese coastal waters, is proposed. And finally, the theory and method of computing the SST of Chinese coastal water are investigated using spheric harmonic model. With the comparisons of the different methods, some useful conclusions are obtained.