The linear trend in sea level rise (SLR) in recent 40 years in the marginal seas around China is analyzed by using the tide gauge (TG) data. Results are compared with satellite remote sensing data. Results from the TG data indicate that the sea level height around the China has been significantly rising in both the recent 40 years and the recent 20 years. The trends in SLR in all the study regions have accelerated in the recent 20 years. Furthermore, the speed of SLR is greater than the global averaged SLR in all the study periods. However, the trend in SLR during the recent 10 years has slowed down due to the interannual and interdecadal variability in sea level height. In addition, the trends in SLR in different seasons are also investigated. A comparison between the AVISO data and TG data indicates that the linear trend during the recent 20 years can be well reproduced by AVISO data. Large differences are mainly caused by the rise of the land surface. Meanwhile, it is also found that there are biases if we use samples such as data collected at tidal gauge stations to estimate the trend of the mean SLR, which is overestimated in the Bo-Yellow-East Sea (BYE) and underestimated in the South China Sea (SCS).