Duan Shengwu's ancestry was from Central China's Hebei province, but he made outstanding contributions to the development of Baotou city, located in North China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region.

Duan joined Sun Chuanfang's army in 1911. Before his withdrawal from the military in 1927, he was a division commander and the acting commander of the First Army of the Five Provinces Allied Forces.

In the wave of the "Development of the Northwest" in 1931, he sold almost all his family property and came to Baotou, investing tens of thousands of yuan in Baotou Electric Lamp and Flour Company and becoming its executive director in 1932.

Duan joined the army for the second time during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (1931-45).

After the "July 7 Incident", the Kuomintang and the Communist Party of China cooperated for the second time. Both Feng Yuxiang and Chen Cheng strongly invited Duan to join the fight against Japan. Fu Zuoyi suggested that he do logistics supply work for the army.

While in Wuhan city in Hubei, Duan met Zhou Enlai, then Deputy Minister of the General Political Department of the Military Commission of the Nationalist Government and they were neighbors. Subsequently, Duan was placed in charge of looking after wounded soldiers throughout the whole country.