Each guide covers one city's leading university in depth — history, admissions rules, language of instruction, and cost — with a shorter look at the other schools that round out the city's higher-education landscape.
Tsinghua University
A rule-based gate, in a city that rations almost everything else the same way.
China · ShanghaiFudan University
Looks like the most international campus in the series. Still gates its front door with an interview, not a price tag.
China · ShenzhenSUSTech
A city that built itself from nothing in 40 years. Its newest university did the same thing in four.
China · ChengduUESTC
The city looks unhurried. Its electronics university was built by state fiat to out-hustle the whole country.
China · DalianDalian University of Technology
Written by someone who actually has a degree from it — the one campus in this guide researched from the inside.
China · HarbinHarbin Institute of Technology
The city is losing its young people. Its top university is pulling them in from across the world.
China · Xi'anXi'an Jiao Tong University
A 1956 relocation that didn't ask anyone's opinion, and a degree that now asks something different of you.
Jingdezhen has no university guide yet — the city's higher-education landscape doesn't currently support the kind of flagship-school treatment the rest of this section is built around.