Bao Xishun

Bao Xishun is one of those people who makes you stop and genuinely reconsider the limits of the human body. Standing at 7 feet 9 inches (236 cm), this herdsman from Inner Mongolia held the Guinness World Record for tallest living man — not as a performer or athlete, but as an ordinary guy tending livestock on the Mongolian steppe. There's something quietly remarkable about that: no Hollywood platform, no sports contract, just a life lived at an extraordinary scale. He held that record until Sultan Kösen edged him out in 2009, but Bao's place in the record books — and in the cultural imagination — is rock solid. I find him fascinating precisely because his fame came entirely from nature, not hustle.

Name (English)

Bao Xishun

Name (Japanese)

鮑喜順

Born

November 2, 1951 (age 74)

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Scorpio / Rabbit

Origin

Ongniud Banner, People's Republic of China

Height

236 cm

Occupation

herder

Awards & achievements

• Guinness World Records

• Wikipedia (English)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bao%20Xishun
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%AE%91%E5%96%9C%E9%A0%86
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q741615

Tags

• herder

Last updated

2026-06-02

Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.