Abstract:The cultivation of top innovative talents has been widely concerned. China has carried out many useful practices in this field, especially at the higher education level, which has formed various distinctive talent cultivation models. This study summarizes and analyzes the experience of selecting and cultivating talents in the Special Class for the Gifted Young at the University of Science and Technology of China, the juvenile class of Xi'an Jiaotong University, Yuanpei College of Peking University, Tsien Excellence in Education Program of Tsinghua University, and Xinstitute of Shenzhen. It concludes that the cultivation of top innovative talents in China emphasizes characteristics of diversified selection, progressive cultivation, and understanding support. In order to meet the urgent needs of cultivating top innovative talents, it is necessary to provide suitable growth paths and development environments for talents in terms of selection, cultivation, and support services, to broaden the vision of talent selection, to pay attention to their early cultivation, and to guarantee characteristic cultivation practices through policies.