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Turning the Gobi desert into farmland

Weijian Shan is one of China's most prominent financiers, leading one of Asia's largest private equity firms, but he had an extraordinary start to his life. 45 years ago he was a penniless youth driven to work in the country's Northwestern聽desert by China's Cultural Revolution. He has written a book about his life - Out of the Gobi: My Story of China and America. He started the forced labour just after elementary school.
(Image: Cultural Revolution propaganda poster, Credit: Getty Images)

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3 minutes