As a teen, Zhang Xin dreamt of getting an office job, learning English, and studying in Britain while living in a Hong Kong slum.
Today, Zhang has achieve all this and much more. Zhang s story is not one of great luck but pluck.
The hard-working Zhang not only managed to study at Sussex University but also got herself a master s degree in development economics at Cambridge. Following her degrees, she worked as an analyst in New York at ING Barings and Goldman, Sachs & Co.
It was then her roots started tugging at her heart and Zhang came back to China to pursue an entirely new career real estate. Her company, SOHO China Ltd, is not only one of the busiest real estate dealers in Beijing but also one of the most admired one for it s building s innovative architecture.
Since its inception in 1995, Zhang and her husband, who also runs SOHO with her, have built four projects in Beijing and Hainan Province, and have three more in the wings.
SOHO, an acronym for small office, home office, deals with residential and commercial developments for the upper middle class. One recent project is Kianwai SOHO consisting of 18 residential towers, two officer towers and four villas in downtown Beijing that boast of light, airy apartments, trendy restaurants, and art galleries.
Though Zhang s core competence is building for the middle class, she has also taken on expensive projects such as the Commune by the Great Wall, which comprises 12 villas, each designed by a different Asian architect.
In overseeing the design of her buildings, Zhang became the first non-architect to receive an award at the Venice Biennale, for her bold personal initiative. Does she worry that the problem of plenty will hit her soon?
Zhang says no, since she targets the most stable segment of the market, the ever-growing middle class. These people don t care about big lobbies, she says. They want broadband and a good location.
And even if hard times befall on her, Zhang should be able to deal with it. Adversities have always made Xin more determined. After all, she wasn t born with a silver spoon in her mouth.
