????等到大人物們到場時，昆明云南震莊迎賓館里已經人頭攢動——200多名政府官員和看熱鬧的人一律身著白襯衫黑西裝，等著地方一把手來發布公告。也許是人們的竊竊私語讓氣氛顯得緊張，又或者是賓館喇叭里播放的《泰坦尼克》主題曲凄婉而莊嚴，但毫無疑問，將要公布的是一條重磅消息。席琳?迪翁可不會撒謊。

????如果這還不能說明問題，嚴介和的到來一定可以。作為唯一在第一排就坐的私營企業家和中國最大民營建筑公司——太平洋建設集團（Pacific Construction Group）創始人，嚴介和干的都不是小事。進門剛剛幾秒鐘，這位頭發灰白的54歲億萬富翁已經笑呵呵地把手搭在了別人的肩膀上。他神采奕奕，聲音洪亮——就連拿起麥克風讓大家安靜的政府官員也很難發出那么大的聲音。

????在這個6月初的星期天上午，傳出的消息跟嚴介和本人如出一轍，具有一種奇異的、指數級的傳奇色彩。太平洋建設集團將為云南價值600億美元的工業科技中心區域奠定基礎，其中包括全新的住宅區和商業區，還有橋梁和隧道，整個建設面積是洛杉磯的兩倍。

????單就太平洋建設集團來說，這份合同至少價值100億美元，最高可能達到170億美元，具體數額取決于最終方案。敲定合同條款只用了30天（與之相比，美國歷史上最大的私人房地產項目——由Related Real Estate承建的紐約市哈得遜碼頭去年評估的價值為200億美元）。

????這就是嚴介和做生意的風格。規模巨大，行動迅速，令人目眩。

????如果嚴介和這個名字在國外并不為人們所熟悉，那也不會是嚴介和的本意。他跟美國前總統比爾?克林頓以及澳大利亞前總理約翰?霍華德關系很好，二人都曾參加嚴介和在上海舉辦的年度首席執行官論壇。嚴介和的個人凈資產估計約為30億美元，在胡潤中國富豪榜上占據著顯著位置——實際上，和其他富有的同胞不同，嚴介和從不遮遮掩掩。

????嚴介和在南京郊外的大別墅里欣然向人們展示了自己的一對椅子（用他的話說就是“世界上最貴的木頭”），然后是能容得下八個人的鍍金spa按摩浴缸，支撐起居室穹頂的巨型大理石圓柱（每根都用整塊大理石雕琢而成）以及直升機停機坪。嚴介和還提到打算在后院建書房的計劃。他忙不迭地說，要修的像悉尼歌劇院一樣，只不過會小一些。

????除了行事張揚，嚴介和還喜歡直言不諱，而這已經給他惹了幾次麻煩。他曾公開批評毛主席，還曾因為跟政府官員在生意上激烈爭吵而險些鋃鐺入獄。他和妻子張云芹育有一兒一女，女兒31歲，兒子28歲。由于違反計劃生育政策，兒子出生時嚴介和被罰款1.8萬元人民幣，在當時約合6000美元。

????20年來，憑借敢作敢為和精明強干，嚴介和成功超越了國內建筑行業那些根基深厚的競爭對手，其中大多數都是和政府關系密切的國有企業。（財富中文網）

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????譯者：Charlie

????By the time the VIP guests arrive, the meeting hall at the Yunnan Zhenzhuang Guest House in the southern city of Kunming is jammed with Communist Party officials and onlookers—some 200 of them, each in the party uniform of black suit and white button-down shirt, all gathered for an announcement from the local party boss. Maybe it’s the nervous chatter of small talk—or perhaps that the theme song to Titanic is playing mournfully, majestically, over the hotel speakers—but there’s little doubt the news will be a?doozy. Celine Dion doesn’t lie.

????If that isn’t a giveaway, the presence of ?Yan Jiehe (pronounced Yen Geah-huh) surely is. Yan, the lone private businessman in the front row and the founder of Pacific Construction Group, China’s largest privately owned builder, doesn’t do anything small. Within seconds of entering the room, the grinning, gray-haired, 54-year-old billionaire has an arm wrapped around someone’s shoulder. His face is reddened with energy. His voice is booming—to the point that when a party official grabs the microphone to settle the crowd, he’s barely as loud as Yan.

????And just like the man, the news on this Sunday morning in early June is oddly, exponentially larger than life. Pacific will build the foundation of a $60 billion industrial and technology hub in this southern Chinese region—an amalgam of entirely new residential and business districts, complete with bridges, and tunnels, encompassing an area twice the size of Los Angeles.

????To Pacific alone, the Kunming contract is worth at least $10 billion and perhaps as much as $17 billion, depending on how the final plans shake out. It took just 30 days to iron out the terms. (For comparison, the largest-ever private real estate deal in the U.S., Related’s Hudson Yards project in New York City, was valued at $20 billion last year; see our story.)

????That’s what makes it a Yan Jiehe deal. Big. Fast. Dizzying.

????If the name Yan Jiehe isn’t familiar outside China, it isn’t by Yan Jiehe’s choice. He’s a buddy of Bill Clinton and former Australian Prime Minister John Howard, both of whom have gone to his annual CEO forum in Shanghai. With a net worth estimated at some $3 billion, Yan has a prominent spot on Hurun Report’slist of China’s richest people—a fact that, unlike some other wealthy compatriots, he makes no effort to hide.

????At his sprawling villa compound outside Nan-jing, China’s former capital, Yan readily shows off a pair of chairs (“The most expensive wood in the world,” he says), then the gilded bathroom spa tub that fits eight, then the massive marble columns (made from single slabs) that hold up the living room—and then the spot where he’s building his helicopter pad. When he describes plans to carve out a new writing den in the backyard, he is quick to say that it will resemble the Sydney Opera House, if a tad smaller.

????Accompanying that ostentation is an outspokenness that has put the businessman at risk on occasion. He has publicly bashed the country’s founding father, Chairman Mao, and nearly gone?to jail after an angry business dispute with government officials. He and his wife, Zhang Yunqin, have a 31-year-old daughter and a 28-year-old son; having the latter required Yan to pay a fine of 18,000 renminbi, or about $6,000 at the time, for violating China’s one-child policy.

????For the past two decades Yan has relied on such brass and gumption to outdo well-entrenched rivals in the Chinese construction industry, most of which are state-owned enterprises (SOEs) with close party ties.