Personal Life
Zhu has a good command of English. He is rarely seen speaking from a script. In his free time, Zhu enjoys the Peking Opera. According to some reports, Zhu is an 18th generation descendent of Zhu Bian (朱楩), titled Prince of Min (岷王), the 18th son of Hongwu Emperor, the founder of the Ming Dynasty. He has a cousin, Zhu Yunzhong, who was born in 1933 and is a retired doctor. His wife, Lao An, was once vice-chairman of the board of directors of China International Engineering and Consulting. She and Zhu were in the same schools twice, first the Hunan First Provincial Middle School (湖南第一中学) and then Tsinghua University. They have a son and a daughter. His son is Zhu Yunlai, born in 1957.
Zhu is known for his technical intellect. In 1997 at a state banquet in Australia, Zhu left for the bathroom, and was gone quite a while. Concerned security staff finally went off to find him. He was in the bathroom, studying the water-saving dual-flush system which he had just disassembled. As a hydrologist, Zhu grasped the impact such water savings, multiplied by China's huge population, could have on China's infrastructure.
Read more about this topic: Zhu Rongji
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