Once turned down for jobs at an estimated 30 companies, including KFC and rejected by Harvard University 10 times, Jack Ma is China's richest man having a net worth over USD 5,130 crores. The 55-year-old self-made billionaire is not only the richest man in China but is among the top 5 richest people in Asia. On Friday, the Chinese entrepreneur will celebrate his 56th birthday.

Born on September 10, 1964, in Hangzhou of China, Jack Ma was very interested in learning English and went to great lengths to improve his skills. He began his initial career as a lecturer in English and international trade at Hangzhou Dianzi University. He heard about the Internet in 1994 and started his first company, Hangzhou Haibo Translation Agency. In April 1995, Ma and He Yibing opened the first office for China Pages, and Ma started their second company. In 1999, he started Alibaba and the rest is history. Jack Ma 55th Birthday Special: Top 10 Inspirational Quotes by Chinese Business Magnate Who Made Alibaba a Global Name.

Here are the top 5 expensive things owned by Jack Ma:

1) Alibaba Group: Jack Ma founded Alibaba in 1999. The firm provides, C2C, B2C and B2B sales services via web portals. It also provides services like electronic payment services, shopping search engines, cloud computing services, among others. This company is considered a top 10 most valuable and biggest company in the world.

2) Alibaba Group Headquarters: The Alibaba group headquarters is located in Xixi campus in Hangzhou in China. This property has around 15,000 employees and is spread around 54 acres of land.

3) French Vineyards: Chinese billionaire Jack Ma snapped up two historic French vineyards for nearly 12 million euros ($13.56 million). He bought the Chateau Guerry and the Chateau Perenne, dating back to the 18th century, in the heart of the fabled Bordeaux wine-growing region.

4) Adirondacks in New York: Jack Ma bought a 28,100-acre property boasting trout streams, woodlands and a maple-syrup operation in New York’s Adirondacks. For this, he paid $23 million.

5) Gulfstream G550: Jack Ma is a proud owner of Gulfstream G550. This jet is featured with luxury features like satellite tv, 42-inch LCD screen, electronic controlled window shield. For this jet, Jack spent $61.5 million.

Seen as a worldwide ambassador for the Chinese business sector, Jack Ma is a strong proponent of an open and market-driven economy. In May 2018, professors Yaakov Frenkel and Yaron Oz at the Tel Aviv University in Tel Aviv in Israel awarded Jack Ma an honorary doctoral degree. Apart from this, Jack was appointed as the new advocates for sustainable development goals in 2019 by UN Secretary-General António Guterres.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Sep 10, 2020 08:50 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).