The research and media investments group Hurun, which is known for it’s annual rich lists has just come out with their China Rich List for 2025 and the results are interesting. It was revealed on Tuesday October 29 in Shanghai. According to the China Daily, Rupert Hoogewerf who is the Hurun Report chairman and chief researcher said that the latest report, “…Has mirrored the nation’s improved competitiveness in innovation and the advancement of its high-quality economic growth.”
Zhong Shanshan, the 71-year-old founder of beverage company Nongfu Spring has topped the list for the fourth year in a row, retaining the crown of China’s richest man. He beat out Alibaba founder Jack Ma, Xiaomi founder Lei Jun and Pop Mart owner Wan Ning whose Labubu toys have taken the world by storm. Zhong Shanshan’s story is the epitome of rags-to-riches – an extraordinary journey that took him from construction work to the upper echelons of the billionaire world. According to Forbes, he currently has a net worth of $76.2 billion.
Humble beginnings to Skyrocketing success
Zhong Shanshan was born in Hangzhou in 1954, amidst great turmoil as China was going through rapid change politically, socially and economically. China was not only embroiled in the Korean War, but also undergoing radical restructuring by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) helmed by Mao Zedong. When he turned four, The Great Leap Forward campaign was implemented which sought to rapidly transform China’s economy.
According to the South China Morning Post, by the time he was in elementary school, he had already dropped out during the chaotic Cultural Revolution due to his family’s poverty and found employment as a construction worker. Life had not been easy and it’s hardships would continue to plague him well into adulthood.
In the 70s, he undertook college entrance examinations and after failing the first time, enrolled himself into the Zhejiang Open University (ZOU), formerly Zhejiang Radio and TV University (ZRTVU) which allowed him to work and study at the same time. From 1984, he was a reporter at the Zhejiang Daily and was interviewing self-made businessmen regularly according to SCMP. This was the beginning of him actualizing his dreams of one day making it big.
Four years later, in 1988, Zhong Shanshan moved to Hainan island and began a business of farming and selling mushrooms, prawns and sea turtles but this was not too fruitful and turned out to be another failure. He then worked as a salesman for Wahaha, which was a beverage company and sold healthcare supplements on the side for a while after his initial ventures failed to take off.
His “big break” came in 1996 when he founded Nongfu Spring which changed the course of his life. During the 90s, distilled water was the norm in China but Zhong took a great leap of faith and stopped removing natural minerals from his water in 1996. This was a savvy marketing move which made Nongfu Spring wildly popular and the top choice for drinking water in China. Under him, the company grew to be the largest bottled-water maker in China as well as one of the largest beverage companies in the world. From 2012 – 2020, Nongfu Spring maintained their dominance of being the most popular seller of packaged beverages in the country according to a report by EqualOcean. He also owned the pharmaceutical company Wantai Pharmacy Enterprise until he stepped down in 2021 due to personal reasons.
Then, in September 2020, the company went public and this massively increased Zhong’s wealth. According to the Bloomberg Billionaire index, with an 84.5% stake in Nongfu Spring and a 73% stake in Beijing Wantai Pharmacy Enterprise his fortune went from $18.9 billion to over $50 billion. In 2021, he made headlines as he briefly overtook Mukesh Ambani to become the richest man in Asia.
The reclusive life of China’s richest man
Despite being his immense success and wealth, China’s richest man is often referred to as a ‘lone wolf’ by Chinese media, because he chooses to maintain an incredibly low profile and does not participate in the public sphere or politics. He is reclusive and does not have many friends in the entrepreneur sector either, according to a CNN report which interviewed Hurun researcher Rupert Hoogewerf. “He just kind of gets on with his own business,” Hoogewerf said. He lives in an apartment which he purchased in Xihu District, Hangzhou, a stark contrast to the enormous properties owned by billionaires like Mukesh Ambani or Jeff Bezos.
With a current net worth of $76.2 billion, Zhong’s story which began in abject poverty and ended in the kind of wealth few can only dream about, is one that is aspirational to all those who have given up on their dreams after facing problems. He is proof that you can hit the reset button at any age and keep going until you finally succeed. After all, from construction worker to billionaire sounds like a workman’s Cinderella story straight out of the books.
