Zhenhan Yang

Yang Zhenhan, born in 1932 on the Tsinghua University campus (Tsinghua Garden). He came from a family with five siblings, and his father was the mathematician Yang Wuzhi. While his father taught at Tsinghua University, their home regularly hosted visiting scholars such as Hua Luogeng and Chen Shengshen. His older brothers showed a strong interest in science from an early age, while Yang Zhenhan himself was more interested in machinery. After the July 7 Incident, his family left Tsinghua Garden and eventually settled at the National Southwest Associated University in Kunming. In 1948, he followed his father to Shanghai, living in a garden villa on Huashan Road, making Shanghai his second hometown.

In 1953, Yang Zhenhan graduated from Shanghai Jiao Tong University with a major in Chemical Machinery. After graduation, he went to Beijing to work as a designer at the Ministry of Metallurgical Industry. After the founding of the People's Republic, the state vigorously developed the military industry, and engineering graduates aligned with the country’s industrial development stage. From 1982 to 1985, he served as the Director of Shanghai Municipal Foreign Economic and Trade Commission, founding the country’s first self-managed, self-financing airline—Shanghai Airlines—and introducing the Garden Hotel and Häagen-Dazs, among others. In 1985 he went to Hong Kong to serve as Vice Chairman and General Manager of the Southeast Economic Information Center, conducting research on land leasing, limits on shareholding, the establishment of Hainan Province, the establishment of diplomatic relations with South Korea, and policies concerning Hong Kong’s return.