article: A former factory girl who earned less than £100 a month is now worth £4.9 billion, and has been named China's richest woman. Zhou Qunfei has shared her incredible 'rags to riches' life story with The People's Daily, after the self-made billionaire's company Lens Technology went public – making her wealthier than Richard Branson. The 45-year-old, whose company supplies protective window glass used in Apple devices, was born into extreme poverty in a village in rural China. Zhou Qunfei, 45, has been named China's richest woman after her company Lens Technology went public . Qunfei's ID badge from when she worked in a factory, making glass for watches. She would send her salary home to her father, who was nearly blinded in an industrial accident. Her mother died when she was five. Her mother died when she was just five years old, and her father was also made blind following an industrial accident. But he encouraged her to study hard to get ahead, and she left home as a teenager to work in a glass-processing factory in Shenzhen, where she was put to work shaping glass for watches. Fed up with her monotonous job, she handed in her resignation after three months – only for her bosses to promote her to a newly-created department. Qunfei said it was perhaps their surprise that a young girl from a rural village was able to write that made them take a chance on her. Bosses at the glass manufacturer where Qunfei started her working life promoted her to head up a new department within the factory after she handed in her notice, having been impressed by the quality of her letter . Qunfei set up Lens Technology when she was just 22 years old. She invented the scratch-resistant glass made by the company after she was inspired when watching how rain would fall on the surface of lotus leaves . 'Maybe it was because my resignation letter was well written and this attracted the attention of the factory supervisor', she said. 'The kept me on and gave me a promotion to head up my own newly created department.' She rose up the ranks to become the director of the whole manufacturing operation, before deciding to set up her own company, aged 22 years old in 1993. It was her rural background that also helped inspire the invention that would help Qunfei make billions. Qunfei says when she was a child she would watch the rain falling on lotus leaves – which later inspired her to create Lens Technology's patented, scratch-resistant coating used on a range of Apple devices. 'Droplets of water would roll around the surface of a lotus leaf and not leave any trace,' she said. 'If it wasn't for my primary school teacher reminding me to be observant I may not have had the inspiration to think of my invention.' Qunfei rented a three-bedroom 'villager apartment' close to Bao'an International Airport to launch her business, using savings of £1,800 from overtime she had completed, as she sent her salary home to her father. In a bold move, she even passed on the contact details of her competitors to her customers in a bid to expand the size of the market, fearing her operation was too small for the amount of work available. Qunfei's company Lens Technology supplies Apple with its scratch-resistant glass. Shares in the company were worth 78 Yuan each on March 31, making the 590 million shares held by Qunfei worth $7.4 billion . Microsoft owner Bill Gates: £45.5 billion . Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg: £17 billion . Landlord Gerald Grosvenor: £7.7 billion (Britain's richest person) Chelsea Football Club owner Roman Abramovich: £5.4 billion . Virgin founder Richard Branson: £3 billion . Film director Steven Spielberg: £2 billion . US business tycoon Donald Trump: £2.7 billion . Designer Ralph Lauren: £4.2 billion . Now many of the world's phone manufacturers are her customers, and the number of orders taken by Lens Technology continues to rise. Her company went public on March 18 and she became the richest woman in China officially on March 30 when the market price at close for Lens Technology reached 78.07 yuan per share. This means the 590 million shares held by Qunfei as CEO had a market value of around £4.9 billion, putting her ahead of the real estate tycoon Chen Lihua who is reported to worth £4.1 billion. Qunfei says she is proud of her roots, and invited a former language teacher who urged her to study and be observant to a pre-stock market listing party for her company. Qunfei is part of an explosion of billionaires in China over the past 10 years, many of them self-made.
highlights: Zhou Qunfei born in poverty in rural China and started work on shop floor .
  Quickly promoted before she set up her own company at age of 22 .
  Her company went public on March 18 and her shares worth £4.9 billion .
  Patented scratch-persistent glass was inspired by rainfall on lotus leaves .
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