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Chinese Universities Guide: 985, 211, and Double First-Class Ranked If you've ever tried to understand the Chinese university system, you've probably hit a wall of acronyms: 985, 211, 双一流 (Double First-Class). What do they actually mean? Which universities fall into which tier? And more importantly — does it matter? We built a database of all 2,917 Chinese universities and mapped their tier status. Here's what we found. The Three Tiers: 985, 211, and Double First-Class China's higher education system has three main classification layers. Each was introduced at a different time and serves a different purpose. 985 Project (985工程) Introduced in 1998 (hence the name — May 1998 speech by Jiang Zemin at Peking University). The goal: build ~40 world-class research universities. Currently 39 universities carry the 985 designation. These are the absolute elite. Think of them as China's Ivy League equivalent: University City Known For Peking University (北大...