Bottled-water tycoon Zhong Shanshan has become China's wealthiest person, worth $60.5 billion
Bottled-water tycoon Zhong Shanshan has become China's wealthiest person, worth $60.5 billion CNS / STR

KEY POINTS

  • Zhong Shanshan dropped out of elementary
  • He worked as a carpenter to support his family
  • The businessman failed his college entrance exam twice

Decades of perseverance and hard work paid off for 67-year-old Zhong Shanshan. Today, he is considered the richest Chinese in the world.

Take a look at how the chairman of China’s largest bottled water company Nongfu Spring and the majority owner of vaccine maker Beijing Wantai Biological Pharmacy Enterprise built his fortune slowly over the years.

Hangzhou-born Zhong dropped out of elementary school during China's Cultural Revolution. Back then, despite his young age, he helped support his family, working as a carpenter for 10 years, according to a South China Morning Post report.

Zhong failed the college entrance exam twice, but later on, he was able to enroll at what is now called Zhejiang Radio and TV University. He worked as a reporter in the 1980s before becoming a businessman.

In 1988, he resigned as a reporter for the Zhejiang Daily. In the succeeding years, he ventured into various businesses, including a newspaper business, a mushroom business, and even a prawn farming business.

It was only when he met fellow Hangzhou-native Zong Qinghou, CEO of Wahaha, which sold bottled water, juices and various health products, that he started venturing into selling beverages. In 1996, he started Nongfu Spring.

To date, Zhong has an estimated net worth of $75.5 billion, according to Forbes’ Real-Time Billionaires List.

He replaced Alibaba’s Jack Ma as the richest person in China. The latter ranked fourth among the richest Chinese people on the list. He has a net worth of $36.7 billion.

The majority of Zhong's fortune derived from his 84% stake in Nongfu Spring, which he founded in 1996. The beverage maker became publicly traded in Hong Kong in September 2020.

Aside from the bottled water company, Zhong also has a 75% stake in Beijing Wantai Biological Pharmacy Enterprise. The medical products company began trading publicly on the Shanghai exchange in April 2020. According to reports, Zhong left the Wantai board in January 2021 due to personal reasons.

The Chinese man next to Zhong on the list is Zhang Yiming, founder of ByteDance, which owns the news-aggregation service Toutiao and the video-sharing app TikTok. He has a net worth of $59.4 billion.

Nongfu Spring, with its distinctive labelling, is reported to be China's biggest producer of bottled water, a feat that has propelled founder Zhong Shanshan to the top of the country's rich list
Nongfu Spring, with its distinctive labelling, is reported to be China's biggest producer of bottled water, a feat that has propelled founder Zhong Shanshan to the top of the country's rich list AFP / GOU YIGE