Property tycoon Wang remains China's wealthiest person with $32b

Property tycoon Wang Jianlin retains his crown as China's richest man despite internet giant Jack Ma's 41 percent surge in wealth, according to the Hurun Rich List 2016

But the 62-year-old's wealth has fallen 2 percent to $32.1 billion, while Alibaba Group Holding Ltd's head Ma, 52, took second spot with $30.6 billion. The third place went to Pony Ma, 45, of Tencent Holdings Ltd, with $24.6 billion, a 38 percent surge.

Rupert Hoogewerf, chairman and chief Researcher of the Hurun Research Institute report released on Thursday, said: "Despite a 20 percent drop in the domestic stock markets and a slowdown in the economy, the number of richest people in the country has jumped 179 to 2,056, double that of three years ago and up 10-fold from 10 years ago."

"The list shows there are now 754 Chinese billionaires in the world, way more than in the United States, which has 535 billionaires," said Hoogewerf. Of them, 594 are from Chinese mainland, down 2 from last year, 94 from Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macao, and 66 from rest of the world, mainly in South East Asia.

Yao Zhenhua, 46, of Baoneng Group is the biggest climber this year, shooting up 200 places to fourth spot on the back of a nine-fold increase in his wealth to $17.2 billion. Low-profile Yao made the headlines this year over his hostile takeover of leading real estate developer Vanke Co Ltd, according to the report.

Three other new faces in top 10 are: ‘Online Games Tycoon' Ding Lei, 45, of Netease Inc, ‘Real Estate King' Xu Jiayin, 58, of Evergrande Group and ‘Home Appliances King' He Xiangjian, 78 of Midea Group Co. Mobile phone maker Lei Jun of Xiaomi Corp dropped out of Top 10 to 14th place.

Two new entrants in the top 100 are: Online games magnet Chi Yufeng, 45, of Perfect World, and ‘Shaver and Hairdryer King' Li Gaiteng, 44, of Flyco Group Co Ltd.