Zhang s company Soho China is transforming whole areas of the Chinese capital.
Zhang Xin is a billionaire property magnate, has been named one of the world s most powerful women and has played a large role in transforming Beijing s architectural landscape.
At 43, Zhang has made a name for herself bringing hip, urban architecture to Beijing s previously gray and drab skyline, and making a lot of money while at it.
She co-founded her property development company Soho China -- which stands for Small Office, Home Office -- with her husband Pan Shiyi in 1995. When it went public in 2007, it had raised $1.9 billion.
Wealthy, stylish and dynamic, Zhang and Pan are the embodiment of middle-class Chinese aspirations of wealth and success.
However, Zhang s own path to success includes an itinerant childhood and working in a Hong Kong sweatshop when she was only 14 years old.
Zhang s parents came from a long line of Chinese immigrants who lived in Burma but moved back to Beijing, taking jobs in the Bureau of Foreign Languages. They later separated when Zhang was only 5 years old. Zhang and her mother relocated regularly until they finally settled in Hong Kong. Zhang, then aged 14, worked in a garment factory, while learning English at a secretarial college.
She managed to get a scholarship to study economics at the University of Sussex in England and went on to gain a masters degree from Cambridge. Head-hunters from an investment bank offered her a job on Wall Street where Zhang worked until 1994, when the lure of being part of China s rapid transformation and economic boom became too great.
She returned to Beijing where she met Pan and joined Vanatone in 1995, the property company he co-founded. The pair set up their own company that became Soho China and have since embarked on a number of projects -- One of their first was a boutique hotel by the Great Wall of China.
Since then, Zhang has fostered her passion for architecture and design and invited a number of internationally renowned architects and artists to work with them, including Riken Yamamoto, Patrick Schumacher and Ai Weiwei.
Soho China s Jianwai project in Beijing s Chaoyang district was completed in 2007. The mix of business and residential towers has transformed a previously run-down and depressed area in the east of the city into one of its most appealing areas for young aspiring professionals.
Last year, Forbes listed Zhang as #19 on their list of the 400 richest Chinese, with a net worth of $1.21 billion. Even in the current tough economic climate, Zhang and Soho China have a bright outlook for 2009 and beyond.
