A businessman who sells bottled water is now the richest man China. The business magazine Bloomberg named Mr Zhong Shanshan as China's richest man its latest Billionaires Index. The magazine said Mr Zhong is worth $58 billion. This makes him $2 billion richer than the previous number one, Jack Ma. Mr Ma founded the retail Internet giant Alibaba. Mr Zhong made his wealth his Nongfu Spring bottled water company. He then branched into making vaccines. He is the chairman a vaccine manufacturer called the Beijing Wantai Biological Pharmacy. Mr Zhong is now 17th the global rich list. It seems that he will move that list the future.
Zhong Shanshan, 66, was a construction worker he got business. He started his Nongfu Spring company in 1996. This was just as China's market bottled water was emerging. Bottled water is now a huge industry China. Most people who live China prefer drinking bottled water to tap water health reasons. They prefer not to trust tap water. Zhong's pharmaceutical company is also helping the fight COVID-19. It is developing a nasal-spray vaccine the help of researchers a top university. Chinese media call Mr Zhong a "lone wolf" because he is rarely seen public. He rarely gives interviews and he likes to keep himself to himself.
