The requirements of shear-weight ratio in the codes of United States and some other countries were introduced. The regulations and related contents regarding the minimum story shear for the seismic design of buildings issued in Chinese Code for Seismic Design of Buildings (GB 50011-2010) and Technical Specification for Concrete Structures of Tall Buildings (JGJ 3-2010) were briefly described. A comparison between Chinese code and other seismic design codes was made. The basic structural period of tall structures satisfying shear-gravity ratio of the code was introduced. Based on the requirement for seismic shear-gravity ratio, the curves of seismic influence coefficient can be divided into two situations. In either situation, the curves of seismic influence coefficient can be divided into five sections. In each section, the relationship between structural period and the minimum seismic shear gravity ratio was introduced. The calculation results of the basic structural period satisfying the base shear factor issued in the code were obtained. It can be easy to determine the basic structural period satisfying the base shear factor issued in the code by using this table. The analysis result was checked with some engineering examples.