By Rupert Wingfield-Hayes BBC, Beijing

China's largest city, Shanghai, is to slash construction of new high-rise buildings to try and stop the city from sinking under the weight of all the concrete and steel.

Shanghai is reportedly sinking 1.5cm each year

Parts of Shanghai are now sinking at a rate of one-and-a-half centimetres a year, largely as a result of a massive building boom there over the last 10 years.

According to Saturday's China Daily, tall buildings look nice but they can also cause problems - a fact that Shanghai is rapidly finding out.

Over the last decade a massive building boom has totally transformed the skyline of China's largest city.

According to the paper, at least 3,000 high-rise buildings have gone up; another 2,000 are on the drawing-boards.

World's tallest building

Shanghai is already home to China's tallest building and a new building now under construction will be the world's tallest.

All this in a city that is, in effect, built on a drained swamp.

Now, as the city gradually sinks below the level of the Huang Pu river, the city fathers are getting cold feet - or should that be wet feet?