The Business Adventures of You Tongda

You Tongda's grandmother was over 2 meters tall and died at 39. Her father had been the principal of a middle school in the city. After her family was driven back to the countryside, her grandparents got married. His grandmother brought a substantial dowry, including two edible rose plants. Her three children were all tall. His father was 1.9 meters tall, and both You Tongda and his older brother were over 1.8 meters.

When he was in elementary school, Youjiaying Village, where his family lived, was taken over for the construction of an airport. The village was relocated to an empty plot where a cement factory had excavated raw materials for production. The villagers gathered their dairy cows together and established a dairy farm, where his father worked as a veterinarian. You Tongda's grades were average, but he excelled at sports. He represented his school several times in county and city high jump competitions for students, placing among the top three.

After graduating from junior high, he enrolled in a technical school. Once he graduated, he joined a factory and worked on an assembly line processing circuit boards. He married Ying Tiefang, and they had a son and a daughter. After ten years of processing circuit boards, he left the factory and opened a small shop that repaired and sold home appliances, phones, and computers. Hoping to scout out opportunities in Beijing, he came to the capital to run a courier station. But after losing money for four months straight, he had no choice but to give up and return home to continue running his shop.