Seven of these 20 universities were founded before 1900 — Wuhan (1893), Tianjin (1895), Shanghai Jiao Tong, Sichuan and Xi'an Jiao Tong (all tracing to 1896), Zhejiang (1897) and Peking (1898). Tsinghua, the perennial No. 1, is actually the latecomer, founded in 1911, thirteen years after Peking University.

The geography is strikingly concentrated: Beijing has 4, Shanghai 3, Nanjing 2, Wuhan 2 and Tianjin 2, so five cities take 13 of the 20 slots. The remaining seven are spread across Hangzhou, Hefei, Xi'an, Harbin, Guangzhou, Chengdu and Jinan.

Governance is the detail most rankings hide: 17 of the 20 report to the Ministry of Education, while USTC sits under the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Harbin Institute of Technology and Beihang report to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology — a different funding and discipline profile from the rest.