The five mechanical tigers refer to Tsinghua University, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Xi Jiaotong University and Harbin Institute of Technology. These five universities all ranked in the top five in the third discipline evaluation of the Ministry of Education, and Shanghai Jiaotong University and Huazhong University of Science and Technology tied for the first place with 94 points.

The "Four Little Dragons" refer to the four established mechanical schools directly under the former Ministry of Machinery Industry of China, namely Hefei University of Technology, Hunan University, Jilin University of Technology (now merged into Jilin University) and Yanshan University.

Mechanical specialty is known as "Equipment Department of National Economy", and it is one of the specialties with the longest running history in Chinese universities. The "five mechanical tigers" represent the greatest strength of China's mechanical research. The related disciplines of "Four Tigers of Machinery" are highly accurate and recognized in the industry, with profound industry background and discipline accumulation.