China's booming real estate, information technology and food processing industries are the Communist nation's top three profit-making sectors, contributing much to the annual Forbes list of China's richest 200 people.
Rong Zhijian, chairman of Hong Kong-based conglomerate CITIC Pacific, which mainly engages in infrastructure construction and real estate sales, topped the list with a fortune of $1.498 billion.
Wang Guangyu, owner of the retail chain Gome Appliances, ranked second, and Chen Tianqiao, co-founder of the leading online game provider Shanda Interactive Entertainment, was third on the list.
Another important trend indicated by the list is almost two-thirds of this year's 100 richest are major investors in publicly traded companies, up from just over 40% last year.
"Wealth in China has long been considered to be murky and was hidden because of tax issues. This is gradually changing as private companies tap capital markets at home and abroad to finance their growth," a Forbes official said.
Among the 200 richest on the new list, south China's Guangdong Province is home to 35, top among all areas. Shanghai, the commercial hub, and Beijing, the nation's capital, had 22 each, and east China's Zhejiang Province had 20.
"The list illustrated wealth that was once relatively concentrated in southern China is now spreading throughout much of the country," editor of Forbes China, Jeff Zhou said.
The leading US business magazine, made its first list of China's richest in 1995, and began publishing one annually in 1999. For the first time, Forbes expanded its China list to 200 from 100 in previous years.
The threshold for this year's top 100 richest people was $140 million, up from $100 million last year.
