Shanghai Jiao Tong University is one of the oldest institutions of higher learning in China and enjoys a good reputation at home and abroad. It is a national key university directly under the Ministry of Education and jointly established with Shanghai. After more than 120 years of unremitting efforts, Shanghai Jiaotong University has been built into a first-class domestic and internationally renowned university with "comprehensiveness, innovation and internationalization".

At the end of the 19th century, the Sino-Japanese War was defeated and the nation was in danger. Sheng Xuanhuai, a famous industrialist and educator in modern China, founded Nanyang Public School, the predecessor of Jiaotong University, in Shanghai in 1896, adhering to the belief that "self-improvement is the first step, and talents must be stored before learning". At the beginning of its establishment, the school established the tenet of "seeking truth from facts and being pragmatic", took the cultivation of "first-class talents" as its educational goal, and was diligent, enterprising and tireless. In the 1920s and 1930s, it became a famous institution of higher learning in China and was known as "Oriental Massachusetts Institute of Technology". During the Anti-Japanese War, teachers and students went through all kinds of difficulties, moved to the concession, moved to Chongqing, and persisted in running schools. Many students joined the army and fought bloody battles. On the eve of liberation, teachers and students actively participated in the democratic revolution, and the school was known as the "democratic fortress".