On September 24, 2013, a tall woman appeared at the Beijing No. 2 Intermediate People's Court.
She looked tired as she was supported by two bailiffs in her trembling clothes.
When the prosecutor read out the indictment, her expression was pained and she could barely stand on her feet, as if she had nothing to do with the billionaire Ding Shumiao, who was known as the "first sister of the high-speed railway."
However, this is exactly what she is, Ding Shumiao, who was an ordinary peasant woman in Shanxi, who sold eggs for a living, struggled all the way to become a business giant, and was listed on the Forbes China Charity List.
Ding Shumiao was born in 1955, his family was poor, his mother died early, and he was raised by his father alone. At 1.7 meters tall, she has only a primary school education, but she has shown extraordinary resilience.
In the 70s of the last century, she married Hou Wanhu of Wang Bicun, an ordinary rural person, and became a peasant woman.
Unlike the villagers, who work in the fields every day, Ding Shumiao is reluctant to do farm work, choosing to collect eggs from door to door and then sell them to the county seat. Despite being illiterate and not able to do arithmetic, Ding Shumiao won the respect of the villagers with his open-mindedness and tenacity.
Ding Shumiao, who was eager to pursue more wealth, founded his own restaurant during the reform and opening up, which became the starting point of his career.
Her persistence and bold moves have made her one of the rural entrepreneurs. In Jincheng, coal transportation flourished, and Ding Shumiao threw himself into it.
Through her relationship with Wang Gang, she successfully obtained the "wagon plan" and became the middleman of railway transportation. As a result, Ding Shumiao's business empire gradually grew, and she invested in a large number of wagons, and successfully won the important resource "Wagon Project".
Ding Shumiao's luck didn't stop there.
She found the "wagon scheme" more lucrative. Through a relationship with the Zhengzhou Railway Bureau, she successfully acquired the "Wagon Project" and used it as the cornerstone of her business, earning a huge amount of money.
Her business footprint has also expanded, entering the fields of high-speed rail equipment, film and television investment, and advertising media. Ding Shumiao became the "first sister of the high-speed rail", gaining fame and fortune and living a rich life.
However, Ding's success is not purely based on business acumen. Her collusion with the Minister of Railways, Liu Zhijun, allowed her to obtain improper benefits in the high-speed rail project.
Ding Shumiao has obtained a generous referral fee through the help of his network and international prestige.
However, this bastion of money, status, and honor eventually collapsed. The Audit Commission's investigation revealed the fact that Ding Shumiao and his company illegally obtained funds.
In 2011, Ding Shumiao was taken away for investigation, and the results showed that she had illegally made billions of yuan through her connections in the railway system.
In 2013, Ding Shumiao was tried in a Beijing court.
Frail and frail, she was carried into the courtroom, wearing a hat and facing the charges against her. In the end, she was sentenced to 20 years in prison for bribery and illegal business operations, and was fined heavily.
Ding Shumiao pleaded guilty in court and accepted the court's verdict.
In the fog of money, Ding Shumiao lost herself.
Her business success has been corrupted into ill-gotten gains, and her philanthropy has been nothing more than a cover for her ill-gotten wealth.
She was once a billionaire, but now she is the subject of a court trial.