Zhou was born in Qingtian County of Lishui, Zhejiang Province. He was a tailor when young. Zhou started his own business in 1986 when he was twenty years old.

In 2008, Zhou Chengjian and his family was estimated worthy US$ 1.9 billion by the Hurun Report magazine. His daughter also holds a major share of the Metersbonwe Group.

The famous Hurun Report made a rank named 2005 China Philanthropy List, and Zhou was ranked No.36 due to his large donation to local education system. The Hurun Report in late 2008 also summarized that “Zhou storms up the rankings” in Shanghai.

In 2014, Zhou was ranked No.892 in Hurun Report’s Global Rich List 2014, with a wealth of US$1.9 billion, which is a quite rare case because in 2009 the world’s economy is in recession and the most billionaires in the list suffered from wealth shrink, but Zhou still earned a dramatic increase.

In 2016 it was announced that he was one of a number of Chinese businessmen that had mysteriously gone missing. A week later, news reported that he has returned to work.