[Breaking] Mukesh Ambani Replaced By China's Bottled Water King As Richest Man In Asia

Hanima Anand |Dec 31, 2020

Asia has its new richest person when Chinese businessman Zhong Shanshan overtook Mukesh Ambani in the race of wealth. His net worth has surged over $70 billion this year.

Several hours ago, Bloomberg informed that Zhong Shanshan, a private billionaire in China, has become the richest man in Asia after this position belonged to the Indian tycoon Mukesh Ambani for a long time.

Zhong Shanshan replaced Mukesh Ambani as Asia’s richest person

In fact, Zhong Shanshan is not a familiar name to the press but he is quite a household name in China. His business start from Nongfu Spring, a beverage company then expands to journalism, farming and also healthcare.

During the pandemic, Zhong Shanshan’s net worth made a remarkable jump to $77.8 billion at the end of 2020, increasing by $70.9 billion compared to this time last year.

Zhong Shanshan And Nongfu Spring Water — Zhong Shanshan and his Nongfu Spring bottled water brand

His wealth soon eclipsed Chinese tech titans even including the famous Jack Ma and the former richest man in Asia, Mukesh Ambani.

At the moment, Zhong Shanshan is the 11^th richest person in the world. Experts commented that his rise was one of the fastest wealth accumulations in human history. Just some months ago, his name is rarely quoted outside China.

About Zhong Shanshan, the Lone Wolf

Zhong Shanshan was born in 1954 in Hangzhou, China. According to reliable sources, he dropped out of school when he was 12. That’s when the Chinese cultural revolution took place, causing chaos in the society, and Zhong’s parents were among those persecuted by the Chinese government.

The fact that he used to work in different jobs at an early age might contribute to his success later. Zhong was once a construction worker, a news reporter and a beverage salesman before setting up his own beverage company.

In September 1996, Zhong founded Nongfu Spring to produce bottled water. Throughout the years, it has risen to one of the top beverage companies in China.

Besides, Zhong also runs Beijing Wantai Biological Pharmacy Enterprise which is a vaccine maker. Both this company and Nongfu Spring were taken to public in 2020, becoming one of hottest listings in Hong Kong. This gave a boost to the billionaire’s net worth.

Zhong Shanshan is entitled the Lone Wolf as he shows no interest in politics as well as links to rich families in the business world. He also avoids publicity, which is the reason why his rise came as a surprise to many people.