Xinjiang entrepreneur Li Jianhong killed in Albanian car crash

Li Jianhong, chairman and president of Xinjiang Grand Scape Group and founder of Urumqi's Silkroad Mountain Resort, has died in a car crash during a business trip in Albania, according to the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region Tourism Association.

Albanian media reported that the accident occurred Monday on the Librazhd-Elbasan national road near Xibraka, leaving Li (60) dead and six others injured. One report quoted local police as saying that the 26-year-old driver of the car that collided with the vehicle Li was driving — which bore Chinese license plates — was arrested flagrante delicto on the charge of "violation of traffic rules".

Public records show Li was born in Zepu county of Kashgar prefecture, Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, in December 1965. In 1993, he resigned from his position at what is now the Guangdong Planning and Designing Institute of Telecommunication Co, in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, and returned to Xinjiang to start his own business.

Today, Xinjiang Grand Scape Group, whose core businesses include telecommunications, tourism and investment and asset management, has grown into a comprehensive enterprise with total assets of 1.4 billion yuan ($205 million). Over the past three years, the group recorded sales revenue of 1.98 billion yuan, paid 62.51 million yuan in taxes, employing around 2,500 people. It once ranked among China's top 500 private companies and the top 30 private enterprises in Xinjiang.

In 2002, the group was a founder of the Xinjiang International Grand Bazaar, which has become a landmark of Urumqi, the regional capital. The company exited the project in 2017.

The Silkroad Mountain Resort, which Li founded in 2003, is among China's largest ski resorts and served as one of the competition venues for the 13th National Winter Games in 2016. During Urumqi's first-ever "snow break" from Dec 1 to 5, the resort received as many as 20,000 visits per day.

Li himself was an avid skier and climber. Starting in 2011, he spent seven years completing the Explorer's Grand Slam by climbing the seven highest summits in the world and trekking to the North and South poles. He was the first person from Xinjiang and the 19th from China to complete the grand slam.

In May 2018, at age 53, he reached the summit of Mount Qomolangma (Mount Everest), the world's highest peak at an altitude of 8,848.86 meters. In the same climbing season, he also summited Mount Lhotse — the world's fourth highest at an elevation of 8,516 meters, and completed two high-altitude trail races — the World's Highest Race: Breathless (35 km) and the Tenzing Hillary Everest Marathon.

On July 21, 2018, he used only eight days from base camp to summit K2, the second-highest peak with 8,611 meters tall and the main peak of the Karakoram Range. He climbed both Mount Qomolangma and K2 within just two months.

In 2019, he snowboarded 200.56 kilometers in 11 hours and 9 minutes at his own ski resort, setting two national records certified by Shanghai China Records Headquarters, namely the longest distance skied in a single day and the shortest time to ski 200 km in a single day.