At a luxurious banquet at the end of 1994, a balding glasses man wearing a rustic purple suit picked up a chopstick shark fin and put it in his mouth to taste, frowning disapprovingly: "This thing, isn't it a fan, it's still sold so expensive!" ”
At the same table, a brightly dressed and full of aura looked at him, and somehow her heart moved slightly. Four days later, she accepted his marriage proposal.
The woman's name is Zhang Xin and the man's name is Pan Shiyi, and this encounter means that the huge Soho China is about to enter the stage of the times.
Zhang Xin's parents were Burmese Chinese, but by the time Zhang Xin was born in 1965, they had returned to China and were assigned to work in the translation bureau in Beijing. But Zhang Xin's happy childhood time is only five years, because of the factors of the times, Zhang Xin's mother was sent to the countryside of Henan, and after returning to Beijing, life was also difficult.
When she was young, Zhang Xin had difficulty finding a fixed good friend because she had been transferring schools, about seven or eight times, until she was 14 years old, and her parents took her to Hong Kong to earn a living, rented a small apartment and settled down.
The apartment was so small that there was no bed, and Zhang Xin and her mother slept on a desk, blocked by a thick dictionary next to it, afraid of rolling over and rolling to the ground.
This is a brand-new English-Chinese dictionary, bought by Zhang Xin with her first month's salary, she works on the assembly line of an electronics assembly plant, gets up early every day in the dark, like a screw in her workstation, and works all day, and her neck and elbows are stiff when she leaves work. But even in such a bad situation, Zhang Xin did not give up studying.
She can't read full-time, and Zhang Xin attends night school, focusing on learning English. She has a high talent for language and learning ability, which lays the groundwork for her future business.
Who would have thought that a little girl squatting in the workshop would become a female elite with an annual salary of $250,000 in the top investment banks on Wall Street? But Zhang Xin flipped his fate on his own.
In fact, even as a female worker, she did a better job than the average person, at the age of 16, she was transferred to the warehouse keeper, the income increased and paid off a lot of leisure, which was spent on learning. She bravely applied to the country to study abroad and received an admission notice and scholarship from the University of Sussex in the United Kingdom.
In 1984, 19-year-old Zhang Xin carried his beloved English-Chinese dictionary and carried a wok of stir-frying pots, and bravely broke into Britain. After graduating from sussex University, Zhang Xin was admitted to Cambridge and became a hot talent in Europe and the United States. After ten years of tempering, the Chinese beauty on Wall Street has returned domineeringly.
The dinner in 1994 was organized by Zhang Xin's Cambridge classmates. At that time, Pan Shiyi was a small boss in Hainan who had just come out of the mountains and did not have amazing appearance. But his experience is also extraordinary.
Pan Shiyi is two years older than Zhang Xin, a native of Gansu, and his father Pan Shilin was a high-achieving student at Shaanxi Normal University, but like Zhang Xin's parents, the hand that turned the clouds and rain of the times suddenly beat the Pan family into extreme poverty. Pan Shilin only eased up after 15 years, during which Pan Shiyi's mother was paralyzed, and her two younger sisters were sent away because of their inability to raise them.
In 1979, when Zhang Xin came to Hong Kong to work as an hourly worker, Pan Shiyi was admitted to the secondary school in the provincial city of Lanzhou, and in addition to the ticket money, he did not have half a son on his body. Pan Shiyi later recalled bitterly that he only had one pair of trousers to wear a semester, and he was extra careful in physical education class, afraid that the pants would be torn to reveal the underwear inside, which his mother sewed with a flowery rag head, and he was afraid that his classmates would see it and make fun of it.
After graduation, Pan Shiyi entered the system with his own ingenuity, which was an excellent destination for rural youth who suffered a lot, but unexpectedly, in 1987, Pan Shiyi kicked the iron rice bowl that everyone envied. He was not willing to spend his whole life facing a desk and decided to start his own business.
Pan Shiyi set his sights on real estate, and when Zhang Xin was in Britain and the United States, Pan Shiyi and Feng Lun and other like-minded friends set up Wantong Company, speculated in houses through high-interest loans, and earned more than 10 million yuan in half a year.
Fate in the dark is destined, Pan Shiyi to meet Zhang Xin, before her, Pan Shiyi has experienced two failed marriages, when he saw Zhang Xin, who spoke English with an arrogant face, he knew that she was not only his most suitable wife, but also the strongest partner in his career, after knowing her for four days, Pan Shiyi proposed to Zhang Xin.
Whether to marry Pan Shiyi, Zhang Xin spent an hour thinking. Compared with her status as a returnee, Pan Shiyi is just a turtle who has never seen anything in the world, her appearance is not proud, and she has a marriage history. But Pan Shiyi's unique thinking, extraordinary conversation, and self-confidence with bones have deeply attracted her, if marriage is a game, she bets that she will win.
In 1995, Pan Shiyi took money from Wantong and left, and Zhang Xin founded Hongshi Industry, which is the predecessor of Soho China.
Zhang Xin and Pan Shiyi have their own strengths. Zhang Xin has overseas experience and is good at architecture, space design, and the management and model of modern enterprises. Pan Shiyi, on the other hand, is good at business negotiations, dealing with government departments, taking land and marketing. Under the two swords, Soho China has grown into a towering tree and is a well-deserved giant in the real estate industry.
Many people may not know that the model room we visited when we went to the real estate to choose a house was introduced by Zhang Xin to the mainland. When Hyundai Soho was founded, the real estate industry only had reinforced concrete houses and no beautifully decorated model rooms. But Zhang Xin, who is trendy in thought, insists on making a model room and giving buyers the strongest visual impact.
She personally designs the decoration plan, from wall packaging to furniture selection, to a bottle of flowers and a decorative painting, all of which are meticulously polished. The installed model room is shining, the buyers who come to visit are endless, and the sales lady loses no time in selling: "What you see is what you get, and your home can be so beautiful." For a while, everyone lined up to grab a single house, and Pan Shiyi gave Zhang Xin a thumbs up and admired it.
The marriage of the two has also had a turbulent period, because both parties are too capable, and they also have the desire to control, do not give in to each other when they encounter problems, and quarrel to hurt feelings. It is also said that Pan Shiyi cheated and was caught by Zhang Xin, and the strong woman who could bear this humiliation and angrily proposed a divorce.
But this marriage did not break down after all, because Zhang Xin and Pan Shiyi are not only husband and wife, but also a community of interests, and there are too many entanglements in their careers, and no one can replace them.
The rational Zhang Xin first made a compromise, first giving up her status as a partner to become a wife, she retreated behind the scenes, became pregnant and gave birth to a son. With the bond of children, the marriage of the two was tied more tightly.
As for the derailment incident, it is said that Zhang Xin locked Pan Shiyi at home for a whole month and was not allowed to go out, soho executives looked for him to report their work and could only go to their 48th floor home to find it, and afterwards, Pan Shiyi transferred nearly half of Soho's shares to Zhang Xin in the form of gifts.
On the surface, this is a family affair of the couple, the husband quit out of shame and regret, leaving his wife in charge, but the truth of the matter is far from simple, Zhang Xin is a permanent resident of Hong Kong and a Us citizen. This move of "overseas change of hands" made Soho listed in Hong Kong smoothly, and as the next big move of foreign boss Zhang Xin, it was even more jaw-dropping.
Since 2014, Zhang Xin has opened a selling and selling model, selling domestic assets in large quantities, and after selling Hongkou Soho at a high price in 2017, the cumulative set has now reached nearly 30 billion yuan, and Zhang Xin has also risen to the 12th place in the Hurun female rich list that year. Even Pan Shiyi once said that the most beloved Wangjing Soho almost changed hands with others.
In March 2020, soho China was privatized by Blackstone. Although it dragged on for several months, the acquisition eventually failed. But this wave of operations by Pan Shiyi and Zhang Xin is too suspicious, so crazy cash-out, is it really going to run?
Pan Shiyi said conclusively that he was holding a Chinese passport and would not run to foreign countries, but the fact that he sold the property and liquidated the warehouse and his two sons were studying in American colleges and universities was placed here, and the speech was not convincing.
Some people also found that Zhang Xin had donated 100 million US dollars (equivalent to more than 600 million yuan) to American universities, but did not donate anything to the new crown epidemic in China in 2020, and the couple only said four words: Wuhan refueling.
Although donations are voluntary, we cannot morally kidnap anyone. However, the contrasting practice of Pan Shiyi and Zhang Xin has indeed caused many people to be indignant.
As a famous real estate tycoon on the Hurun global rich list, how can it be said that he stood by and watched when the motherland was in trouble? After all, no matter how good people are, they can't forget ben and forget their roots.
Author: Linglong Xin