Shanshan has knocked Alibaba founder Jack Ma from his mantle.
According to a report by the BBC, the new richest person in China is a bottled water tycoon.
He founded Nongfu Spring in 1996 in the Zhejiang province on China's Eastern coast.
Mr. Shanshan’s wealth is pecked at $58.7bn (£46.2bn) according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
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The recent stock market listing of his bottled water firm and a controlling stake in a vaccine maker have helped boost his fortunes.
Nicknamed the "Lone Wolf", Mr. Zhong is now Asia's second-richest person behind India's Mukesh Ambani, the billionaire behind Reliance Industries.
Mr. Zhong now ranks 17th overall on its list of the world's top 500 richest people.
Most of China's new billionaires come from the tech industry. But rising tensions between China and the US over Huawei, TikTok and WeChat have pushed down valuations of Chinese tech stocks.
China's food and grocery sector is now vying with its tech industry in producing the country's richest business people.
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In April, Mr. Zhong's Beijing Wantai Biological Pharmacy Enterprise listed on the Chinese stock market.
This article is written with excerpts from the BBC.