Abstract: Nowadays, in the field of electrical engineering, there are many viewpoints about the starting time of Chinese higher electrical education, among which more people think it started in 1908. However, there is no consensus on the correctness of these viewpoints. Thus, it becomes an urgent problem to clarify when Chinese higher electrical education originated, and it is also a fundamental problem in the history of Chinese electrical education. The clarification of this problem is helpful in understanding the origin and development of Chinese higher electrical education, which can deepen the understanding of Chinese higher electrical education. Through digging, sorting and identifying the first-hand historical materials, this paper obtains the following results: The electrical engineering major of The Imperial Polytechnic College may be the earliest institution of Chinese higher electrical education. The first class of students of the electrical engineering major started their courses on October 29, 1904. These students studied twenty-one courses in this college, and twenty-nine of them graduated in July 1910 of the lunar calendar. Thus, it can be concluded that the starting time of Chinese higher electrical education is no later than 1904.