Yang's mother was a civil engineer, and her father, Yan Mingfu, taught English literature at Beijing Foreign Studies University.

[3] Yang started out with several local TV stations, but from 1990 joined China Central Television to produce a program called the Zheng Da Variety Show.

Zheng Da Variety Show received positive reviews, but in 1991 Jiang Kun resigned as co-host citing his busy schedule.

In late 1993, Dhanin Chearavanont, the CEO of Charoen Pokphand, had dinner in Beijing with the Zheng Da Variety Show crew members, and encouraged Yang to study abroad having offered to pay her school fees.

During her time there she also worked with Shanghai's Dragon Television to produce a program Yang Lan Sight (Chinese: 杨澜视线) where she discussed recent American art, films, and events in society.

This took Yang from the pockets of growing wealth in the southern coastal provinces to the relentless poverty in the villages of Zhidan county, north of Xi'an.

In April 1998, Yang launched These Hundred Years (Chinese: 百年叱咤风云录), based BBC and PBS television series joint production People's Century.

Besides, we have developed our own unique features by no longer focusing on current issues or a profession, instead, using personal experiences, intuition and wisdom as the main theme, the program attempts to describe the individuals, their way of life and character through flesh and blood experiences which reveal the interviewees’ wisdom and philosophy.In 2000 and 2001, Sun TV was twice selected by Forbes magazine as one of the world's best small businesses.

In June 2003, Yang Lan announced she would be selling a 70% stake in Sun TV to a mainland Chinese media group, and that she would be leaving the business.

In 2005 she created Her Village, a TV talk show geared toward a Chinese, urban, female audience, which was developed into a multimedia community to empower women.

Yang was a spokesperson for Colgate toothpaste (2009),[12] Nanshan Bywise milk powder (2010),[13] Bluemoon hand sanitiser (2010),[14] Masterkong mineralized Water (2013),[15] and Deli stationery[16] (2015).

[17] As a signature TV talk show, Yang Lan One-on-One focuses on getting to know leading figures from the fields of international politics, business, society and culture.

Her guests have included Sophie Marceau, Bill Clinton, Elon Musk, Henry Kissinger, Lee Kuan Yew, Jack Welch, Andrew L. Webber, Tan Dun, Nicole Kidman, Jackie Chan, Kobe Bryant, Hugh Jackman, and Michael Phelps.

She commuted between Hong Kong and Shanghai and published Enjoy Wind by Seaside (Chinese: 凭海临风) a book of her essays, travel logs and historical sketches compiled during her time at Columbia, selling 600,000 copies.