In 1999, at the age of 37, Wang was the vice-president of a listed company in the eastern city of Jiaxing, 98 kilometers southwest of Shanghai, that she and her husband had started from scratch.

But that year she was diagnosed as having an immune condition. The disease attacked her joints and organs so badly that she could hardly walk and breathe. So, she resigned from her job in 2000.

"When you realize the resignation means you no longer have a say in the company, all of a sudden you've lost your reason for living," Wang says, as though she was telling someone else's story.

The treatment for the disease greatly altered her appearance. She went from a delicate and slender woman who only wore silk to being someone who could dress only in baggy outfits.

"I gained 20 kg. I changed so much that my neighbor of nine years did not recognize me when we met one day at a shopping mall."

An independent, sensitive and battle-hardened business veteran, Wang is clear that sometimes what looks like a disaster today could be a part of a fortune later.

When her neighbor failed to recognize her, Wang made a decision.

"Rather than stay immersed in self-pity, I decided to go somewhere far away and alien enough that I could recharge myself."

In 2008, she made her first trip to the South Pole.