Gao Yuanyuan was born in Beijing on October 5, 1979 and entered the entertainment industry in 1996. Known for her fresh looks and chaste spirit, Gao, unlike other mainland Chinese actresses, did not graduate from any drama academic institutions. Rather, she started her stardom by acting in a TV commerial for Meadow Gold ice-cream after being spotted off the street at Beijing's Wang Fu Jing Shopping District.She appeared as a minor role in the 1997 movie comedy Aiqing Mala Tang, (Spicy Love Soup), directed by Zhang Yang. While in 2000, she starred in an advertisement for Qing Zui (fresh mouth) mint during the CCTV's broadcast of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games, and is thus known to viewers as Qing Zui Nü Hai'er ("fresh mouth girl").In 2002, she played the leading role of Zhou Zhiruo in Yi Tian Tu Long Ji(The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber), a TV series adaptation of Louis Cha's Wuxia novel of the same name. Increasingly well-known in Asia,
