China's richest man, failed twice; then his luck changed like this!
Zhong Shanshan, the founder of China's largest bottled water company Nongfu Spring, is the richest person in China. He has so much wealth that he was once richer than business tycoon mukesh Ambani. Shanshan also has a stake in Wantai Biological Pharmacy Enterprise, a pharma company that makes vaccines and hepatitis test kits. He first came into the limelight in the year 2021 when he became Asia's richest man, beating mukesh Ambani.
Who is Zhong Shanshan?
Born in 1954 in Hangzhou, a city in the eastern part of china, Zhong Shanshan left school during China's Cultural Revolution and got involved in construction work. In the 1970s, Shanshan tried to enroll in a college, but twice he could not pass the entrance test. After this he had to complete his studies from an open university.
Later he also worked as a journalist. He also worked as a reporter in Zhejiang Daily for five years before quitting his job in 1988. After this, he tried his hand at mushroom farming on the Chinese island of Hainan and later also sold shrimp and turtles. When he did not get success in these works, he worked as a sales agent at Wahaha Beverages Company. Then started selling healthcare supplements.
Luck changed in 1993
He got a big break in 1993, when he founded the healthcare brand Yangshengtang and laid the foundation of beverage company Nongfu Spring in september 1996. In september 2020, Nongfu Spring became a publicly traded company and started trading on the hong kong Stock Exchange, due to which Shanshan's wealth saw a tremendous jump. According to the forbes Real Time Billionaires List, as of march 16, 2025, Zhong Shanshan's net worth is $58.8 billion. With this, he is the first richest man in china and the 26th richest man in the world.
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