The design principle of the ground subsidence monitoring bench march in Shanghai is described all rounds with its evolution, optimisation and construction features. The mineral exploration engineering theory and techniques are applied to design special borehole structures so as to convert the elevations of the formations at different depths to the ground level for correlating measurement. A total of 32 monitoring stations each consisting of one bedrock bench marks and several step bench marks have been set up for decades of years to form the ground subsidence monitoring system in Shanghai, which reflects the soft ground subsidence in Shanghai accurately and in time.