Opinion | Meet the Wuhan millionaire who chooses rags over riches
A Wuhan woman who owns property investments worth tens of millions of yuan chooses to spend her days as a street cleaner, in a bid to teach her children the virtues of hard work.
A Wuhan woman who owns property investments worth tens of millions of yuan chooses to spend her days as a street cleaner in a bid to teach her children the virtues of hard work.
Yu Youzhen, 53, owns 17 flats worth more than 10 million yuan (HK$12m) as a result of state land acquisitions that began in 2008, the Wuhan Evening News reported.
But instead of basking in her wealth, she insists on getting up at daybreak, six days a week, to get to her job as a sanitation worker for the Wuchang District Urban Management Bureau, in Wuhan, of central China's Hubei province.
“I want to be a role model for my son and daughter. I don’t want to sit around idly and eat away my fortune,” said Yu in an interview with the newspaper on Wednesday.
She didn't want to giver her children the impression that being a landlady and collecting rent as income was a way of life. That lifestyle would only harm them in the long run, Yu added.
Her plan seems to have paid off. Both of her children are wage-earners. Her son is a driver earning a salary of 2,000 yuan per month; the report did not give the daughter's occupation but did say she earns 3,000 yuan per month.