How bottled water built Zhong's fortune
Zhong Shanshan built his wealth in two very different industries: drinks and pharmaceuticals. The larger part comes from Nongfu Spring, the bottled water and beverage company he founded in 1996 in Zhejiang province. The company drew water from Qiandao Lake, near Hangzhou, and marketed it with memorable advertising, including a slogan describing the water as a little bit sweet.
Nongfu Spring grew into the leading packaged water brand in China. It later sourced water from other natural sites across the country and expanded into tea drinks, juices, functional and sports drinks and coffee. Its distribution network reached small shops in towns and villages throughout China. Brands such as Oriental Leaf tea and Scream energy drinks built strong followings.
Nongfu Spring listed its shares on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in September 2020, an offering that was heavily oversubscribed. Earlier that year his second company, Beijing Wantai Biological Pharmacy, had listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange. Zhong owns a large majority of Nongfu Spring and controls Wantai, and the rise of both stocks in 2020 brought his fortune into public view. His holdings in these two companies remain the basis of his wealth.
Nongfu Spring, Wantai and other holdings
Zhong's main holdings are:
- Nongfu Spring: bottled water, tea, juice, coffee and functional drinks sold across China
- Beijing Wantai Biological Pharmacy: a maker of diagnostic tests and vaccines
- Yangshengtang: a health products company he founded before Nongfu Spring, which became the parent of his other businesses
Wantai is best known for developing a domestic vaccine against human papillomavirus, marketed as Cecolin, which received approval in China at the end of 2019 and became the first such vaccine produced by a Chinese company. It also makes diagnostic kits for hepatitis and HIV, and during the COVID 19 pandemic it supplied testing products.
Nongfu Spring's business has been strongly profitable, helped by its brand, its control of water sources and its distribution reach. Zhong has kept a firm hand on both companies and has steered clear of the expansion into property and finance that many other Chinese entrepreneurs pursued. In 2024 he and Nongfu Spring faced an online backlash in China over claims about his family and business links, which affected sales for a period before the company recovered.
Early life and a winding career
Zhong Shanshan was born in 1954 in Zhejiang province, in eastern China. His parents were teachers, and his education was interrupted by the Cultural Revolution, when he was forced to leave school. He worked as a construction laborer, a stonemason and in other manual jobs in rural Zhejiang during his youth.
After the reforms of the late 1970s opened new opportunities, he resumed his studies and later worked as a journalist for a newspaper in Zhejiang for several years. Journalism gave him a broad view of the changing Chinese economy and of the entrepreneurs who were starting private businesses at the time. In the late 1980s he left the newspaper and moved to the island province of Hainan, which had just become a special economic zone and was attracting ambitious people from across the country. His first attempts at business there did not bring much success.
He then became a regional sales agent for Wahaha, the Hangzhou drinks company founded by Zong Qinghou, selling its health beverages. That experience taught him the beverage business and distribution. In 1993 he founded Yangshengtang in Hainan to sell health supplements, including a turtle based product, and three years later he started the bottled water company that became Nongfu Spring.
Public profile and giving
Zhong is known in China as a lone wolf because he has avoided business associations, government advisory bodies and social circles that many Chinese entrepreneurs join. He rarely gives interviews, and for years he was little known to the public despite running one of the best known drink brands in the country.
He has spoken occasionally about his approach to business, emphasizing product quality, branding and staying focused on industries he understands rather than chasing every opportunity. He has expressed skepticism about relying on debt and speculative investment.
His charitable activities have mostly been conducted through his companies. Nongfu Spring has donated drinking water and supplies in response to natural disasters in China and has supported education and community programs in regions where it operates water sources. Zhong does not run a widely known personal foundation, and his giving has received less attention than that of some other Chinese billionaires. His son, Zhong Shuzi, has been involved in Nongfu Spring's management, and the family's holdings remain concentrated in the two companies Zhong founded.