Mr. Wang, born in Qingdao July 1948, is a native of Tianzhen in Shanxi Province, north China. He joined the Communist Party of China (CPC) in 1983. Mr. Wang Qishan is also a senior economic administrator and a part-time professor at the graduate school of China Finance Institute

In 1969, he was sent to the countryside of neighboring Shaanxi Province to work as a farmer. He served in the Shaanxi Provincial Museum from 1971-1973, graduated from the History Department of Northwest China University in 1976, and began to work in the Institute of Modern Chinese History of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in 1979.

He worked in the rural policy and development research centers of the Secretariat of CPC Central Committee and the State Council between 1982 and 1986.

He served as general manager and Party Secretary of the China Rural Trust and Investment Company in 1988. He was appointed vice president of the Construction Bank of China in 1989, and became vice governor of the People's Bank of China in 1993 and president of the Construction Bank of China in 1994. He was elected president of the Chinese Investment Society in 1995. In 1997, Mr. Wang became a member of the Standing Committee of the CPC Guangdong Provincial Committee, and was elected vice governor of Guangdong Province in 1998. He was appointed director of the Economic Restructuring Office of the State Council in 2000, and secretary of the CPC Hainan Provincial Committee in 2002-2003. He was elected chairman of the Standing Committee of the Hainan Provincial People's Congress in January 2003.

Mr. Wang was made acting mayor of Beijing and deputy secretary of the CPC Beijing Municipal Committee in April 2003. He is chairman of the organizing committee for the Beijing Olympic Games slated for 2008. He is an alternate member of 15th CPC Central Committee and member of 16th CPC Central Committee.

On 21 February 2004, Wang Qishan was elected mayor of Beijing at the second session of the 12th Beijing Municipal People's Congress.

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