Hu Guangyong (1823-1885), also known as Xueyan, was of Jixi origin in Anhui Province. He was first apprenticed in Bukang Private Bank of the old Chinese style. When he served his time, he became salesman. After making acquaintance with Wang Youlin, Governor of Zhejiang, he began to build up a family fortune. He became an expectant appointee of circuit intendant by making donations. He took charge of purchasing weapons and collecting provisions and funds for the troops for the governor.

In December 1861, after the Taiping Army occupied Hangzhou, the governor committed suicide and Hu ran up the Qiantang River to Zuo Zongtang, the newly appointed governor of Zhejiang, carrying with him the provisions and funds for the troops. In 1862 he helped the new governor in collusion with the French aggressors to set up a foreign troop with rifles in the suppression of the Taiping Uprising. In 1866 he again helped Zuo Zongtang to establish Fuzhou Shipping Office. When Zou was promoted to Governor-General of Shaanxi and Gansu Provinces and marched Xinjiang Province, Hu helped him in collecting weapons, provisions and funds for the troops by borrowing funds from the foreign businessmen.

Meanwhile, Hu set up his own 20-odd business firms, including the private banks, pawnshops and herbal medicine shops in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Henan and Hebei Provinces. In Hangzhou he opened up Huqingyutang, a herbal medicine shop while also engaging in the trade of silk and tea by which he gathered a large fortune and became the richest man in Hangzhou. In 1878, with the help of Zuo, he became an official. Therefore he was an official as well as a businessman. He began to engage in public welfare activities, and tried to recover the cultural relics scattered in Japan. The herbal medicine shop became well known for its quality medicine. In 1884, he went bankrupt because he was squeezed out by foreign business people and at the same time he lost his government stocks. In 1885 he died in Hangzhou.