Zhong Shanshan, the founder of the Chinese beverage company Nongfu Spring, is ranked No. 27 on the Forbes 2026 World’s Billionaires list with a net worth of $68.1 billion. He also owns most of the pharmaceutical company Beijing Wantai Biological Pharmacy.
Zhong Shanshan was born in Hangzhou in 1954. He dropped out of primary school during the Cultural Revolution and worked in construction. He later became a journalist at the Zhejiang Daily and quit in 1988 to start his own business.
Net Worth and Rank
- Forbes 2026 list: No. 27, with $68.1 billion
- Source of wealth: stakes in the Chinese beverage and pharmaceutical industries
Early Business
In 1988 Zhong moved to Hainan, an island off China’s south coast, where he sold mushrooms, prawns and turtles. He then worked as a sales agent for the beverage company Wahaha and sold healthcare supplements.
Nongfu Spring
- 1996: he founded a bottled water company in Hangzhou that became Nongfu Spring
- 1999: it stopped removing natural minerals from its water, a move that helped marketing at a time when distilled water was the norm in China
- 2012: Nielsen data showed its natural water was the most popular bottled water in China; it was the country’s top seller of packaged beverages for eight consecutive years from 2012
- September 2020: its stock market debut raised his fortune from $18.9 billion to over $50 billion, making him China’s richest or second-richest person, according to Bloomberg
Pharmaceuticals
Zhong is the majority owner of Beijing Wantai Biological Pharmacy Enterprise.
Why It Matters
Nongfu Spring is China’s best-selling packaged-water brand, and the company’s share price decides the size of Zhong’s wealth.
Net worth figures change daily with share prices. Rankings here follow the Forbes 2026 World’s Billionaires list, with wealth measured on March 1, 2026.
Image: A Nongfu Spring vending machine in Suzhou, China, 2020 (file photo; Zhong Shanshan is not pictured). Photo: Shwangtianyuan / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
