"I have spent most of my life in the mainland and Hong Kong, my family is in Hong Kong, my children are growing up here, I feel like I am Chinese, I make Hong Kong my home. I have a Western face, here is a Chinese heart", covering his chest and speaking, it is Sheng Zhiwen, who is known as the "father of Lan Kwai Fong".
Sheng Zhiwen's story is very legendary. He lost his father at an early age and his family was not well-off, but at the age of 18, he earned 1 million Canadian dollars and came to China to work hard, eventually becoming a billionaire. He has spent decades to build Lan Kwai Fong into a Hong Kong landmark, a world-class entertainment destination, and the Hong Kong movie "Love Night Pu" is centered on Lan Kwai Fong and tells the story between men and women.
Half a century of living in China made Sheng Zhiwen fall deeply in love with this place, and eventually gave up his Canadian citizenship to become a Chinese. It is worth mentioning that Sheng Zhiwen also stood up when Li Ka-shing was involved in controversy, "I don't believe that Li Ka-shing will withdraw funds from Hong Kong, he is just looking for good investment opportunities to make money." ”
Gu Tianle shook hands with Sheng Zhiwen and visually china
In fact, Sheng Zhiwen was not born with a golden key.
Born in Germany in 1950, Sheng zhiwen is a Jewish person, but moved to New York with his parents at an early age. In Sheng Zhiwen's memory, his mother worked in the hospital, and his father was a tailor, who also bought and sold watches. Unfortunately, Sheng Zhiwen's father died soon after. So his mother took him away from home again and went to Canada to live and live a hard life.
The loss of his father in childhood is not only a mental blow to Sheng Zhiwen, due to the lack of top pillars, in order to reduce the burden on the family, Sheng Zhiwen had to start a life of half-work and half-reading, sending newspapers in the morning and working in restaurants on weekends. After graduating from high school, Sheng Zhiwen began to mix with the society, fortunately, he successfully dug into the gold mine of China's textile manufacturing industry, earning 1 million Canadian dollars in two years, becoming an 18-year-old millionaire.
At the age of 19, Sheng Zhiwen made a major decision in his life, taking 1 million Canadian dollars to Hong Kong, China to work hard.
In the 1960s and 1970s, the golden age of Hong Kong's textile and garment industry, coupled with the attraction of the low tax system, Sheng Zhiwen, who smelled the opportunity, decided to seize this rare opportunity. "When I walked out of the airport, I smelled the harbor, women in long shirts, men working bare-chested, everyone was working hard," mr. Sheng saw when he first set foot in Hong Kong.
However, Sheng Zhiwen later found that the prospects of Chinese mainland were broader, so he once again went to the mainland to solicit orders, find garment factories to place orders specializing in mid-to-high-end fashion, and then export to North America and Europe. What Sheng Zhiwen did not expect was that he was once again fascinated by the scenery along the way, "Everywhere is building, everyone is full of motivation, I fell in love with China at that time." ”
As the spring breeze of reform blew, Sheng Zhiwen also opened an office in Changsha, Hunan Province, and often shuttled between the mainland and Hong Kong. At that time, the conditions in the mainland were indeed very poor, "from Changsha to Hong Kong to make a reservation two days in advance, we played table tennis in the hotel at night to order candles, and the power went out at five o'clock in the afternoon." Sheng Zhiwen once said bluntly.
But even so, Sheng Zhiwen did not back down, he firmly believed in his choice. Eventually, Colby, Sheng Zhiwen's textile trading company, became a well-known brand in the industry and was sold for a high price of HK$2.2 billion in 2000. It should be known that in the Hurun China Rich List that year, Song Chaodi, who ranked 10th in Kelihua Software Group, was only worth 2.2 billion yuan.
Sheng Zhiwen is not a workaholic who does not enjoy it at all, and this has become an opportunity for him to build Lan Kwai Fong.
Also in the 1980s, The wealthy Mr. Sheng discovered that Lan Kwai Fong, in Central, Hong Kong, had few restaurants and bars. Therefore, he adopted the new model of "restaurant + bar" to create a California restaurant, attracting many Chinese and foreign guests to come and make a lot of money again.
In fact, Lan Kwai Fong is an L-shaped street in Central, Hong Kong, which existed as early as the 18th century. However, because of the gathering of foreigners at that time, it was a place where everyone came to have fun, and it was also called "Rotten Ghost Fang" by many locals. Later, there were a large number of matchmakers who brokered marriages here, so it was also called "Matchmaker Alley".
With the blessing of historical foundation, coupled with the control of the discerning Sheng Zhiwen, Lan Kwai Fong has developed rapidly. Since then, he has seized the business opportunity to gradually acquire the property rights of Lan Kwai Fong and establish the Lan Kwai Fong Group, which will make it a famous tourist attraction in Hong Kong and a world-class entertainment destination, and won the title of "Father of Lan Kwai Fong".
However, being too hot is not all a good thing. At the end of December 1992, tens of thousands of citizens and tourists went to Lan Kwai Fong to celebrate the New Year as usual, but as the countdown to New Year's Day approached, an accident occurred. Due to the excessive number of people, many streets in Lan Kwai Fong began to lose control, and there were cases of people pushing and trampling, which eventually led to the death of 21 people, becoming an unforgettable pain for the people of Hong Kong.
Of course, Sheng Zhiwen also brought the brand "Lan Kwai Fong" to the mainland.
In 2010, Chengdu Lan Kwai Fong, which is 18 times larger than Hong Kong's Lan Kwai Fong, was established. Sheng Zhiwen said, "This is the second store in the world, and I very much hope that Lan Kwai Fong can integrate into the local culture of Chengdu, so I can see tea houses, Sichuan cuisine and hot pot here." Chengdu people are very good at enjoying life, and I appreciate the ability to earn 12 yuan and spend 10 yuan. ”
According to the official website of Lan Kwai Fong (Chengdu), Lan Kwai Fong Group is a dynamic and diversified business company with footprints in Hong Kong, Chinese mainland and major cities in other parts of Asia. The Group's core business is the merger and acquisition, design, development, operation and management of commercial real estate, as well as high-end restaurants and bars, financial investment and film distribution.
Chengdu Lan Kwai Fong, Visual China
The success of Lan Kwai Fong also led to Sheng Zhiwen's invitation to be the chairman of Hong Kong Ocean Park.
After taking over Ocean Park, Sheng Zhiwen once again showed a unique businessman talent, repeatedly defeating Disneyland and earning the title of "Mickey Mouse Killer". In order to increase his popularity and tourist volume, Sheng Zhiwen did not hesitate to personally participate in the battle to "dress up as an ugly", the jellyfish museum opened, he dressed as a jellyfish; at the Ghost Festival, he dressed up as a ghost in a zombie; on the tenth anniversary of Hong Kong's return to the motherland, he became a cat and bear costume clown, which caused a sensation in Hong Kong.
With the income brought by Lan Kwai Fong Group and others, its net worth exceeded 1 billion US dollars at the time of its sixtieth birthday, which was up to 10 billion yuan according to the exchange rate at that time. Sitting on tens of billions of assets, Sheng Zhiwen enjoys life very much, he has a top holiday villa in Phuket, two luxury yachts, and is also a member of the Hong Kong Jockey Club, with well-known horses such as lucky braves and California prodigies.
Half a century in China, Sheng Zhiwen fell deeply in love with Hong Kong. In 2008, Sheng Zhiwen decided to renounce his Canadian citizenship and join China. "I spent most of my life in the mainland and Hong Kong, where my children grew up, and I felt like I was Chinese, and I made Hong Kong my home. I have a Western face, and here is a Chinese heart," Sheng Zhiwen said, covering his chest.
Interestingly, Sheng Zhiwen is still a very "strange" person, although engaged in the entertainment venue industry, but he does not stick to alcohol; he has been doing clothing products for decades, but he never wears socks except for a few occasions. It is such a "strange man" who goes his own way, and once supported Li Ka-shing when he was caught up in the controversy of "don't let Li Ka-shing run".
In 2014, when a businessman represented by Li Ka-shing shifted his investment from Hong Kong to overseas, Sheng Zhiwen said in an interview, "I don't believe that Li Ka-shing will withdraw funds from Hong Kong, he has world-class listed companies, seeing opportunities overseas, why not invest?" He's just looking for good investment opportunities to make money. ”
Thirty years later, the vicissitudes of Sangtian, once a small fishing village adjacent to hong Kong, have now surpassed the momentum of Hong Kong.
Sheng Zhiwen saw all this in his eyes, and he couldn't help but sigh, "Many people in Hong Kong have never been to the mainland, and they can't see the miraculous changes in the mainland." At present, the mainland is making progress in many aspects compared with Hong Kong and even many places in the world, people's lives have been greatly improved, and Hong Kong's future lies in investing in the development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. ”
(The author丨 Shijie Feng Chenchen, editor |.) Lang Ming)