Lala Rimando

Shanghai-based Hurun Research Institute recently released its Wealth Report, providing details on China’s richest not available from other similar listings by the likes of Forbes and Bloomberg.

Here are tidbits as summarised by Businessweek.

Growing rich and super rich Chinese

In the next 3 years, the number of rich Chinese individuals — or those worth at least $1.6 million — is expected to grow to 1.2 million individuals. There are currently one million of them.

The super rich — or those worth $16-M plus-plus — are likely to increase to 73,000 from the existing 67,000.

Top 10 cities that host the rich

The rich live in the following cities:

1. Beijing, 192,000
2. Shanghai, 159,000
3. Shenzhen, 50,400
4. Guangzhou, 45,900
5. Hangzhou, 34,300
6. Ningbo, 23,300
7. Foshan, 21,600
8. Tianjin, 20,600
9. Suzhou, 18,900
10. Dongguan, 18,000

Refer to the map above to visualise where they are in the country. As expected, the cities not located inland but near the coastlines (facilitating trade) are the top hosts.

How they got rich 

• About 50% are businessmen or entrepreneurs
• 20% are executives, earning from salaries and bonuses
• 15% or 160,000 made money in property business
• 5% are professional stock investors
• 10% others