(FILE)

Pan Shiyi, Chairman of SOHO China, one of the country's leading real estate enterprises, donated $10 million to Yale University together with his wife Zhang Xin on October 29. Although the donation will be used to sponsor Chinese students who have been admitted to the prestigious university, many commentators said that donating to schools in China should have been Pan's first priority.

Pan, born in October 1963 in Tianshui, northwest China's Gansu Province, has no overseas educational background, while his wife, who serves as SOHO China's CEO, graduated from the University of Cambridge and worked on Wall Street for a number of years. Pan began his real estate career in south China's Hainan Province in 1987 before establishing SOHO China in Beijing eight years later.

The couple announced that they will donate a total of $100 million to renowned universities outside China. Prior to the Yale donation, they donated $15 million to Harvard University in July.