The Hindu Business Line : Richie rich

China's richest person is 37-year-old Huang Guangyu and worth $2.5 billion. Huang made his money by starting up an electronic appliances company when just 17 years old. The economic boom in China has meant that home-owners now want to fill their homes with all the latest electrical appliances. Huang was the beneficiary of this trend, having built up China's largest electronic appliance company, GoMe Appliances. Huang consolidated his wealth after his company recently began investing in real estate. He reportedly gained about $2 million a day over the past year. Huang's brother, Huang Junqing, a property developer, also ranks on all of China's rich lists, with a $800-million fortune, giving the brothers a combined fortune of $3.3 billion.

China's richest woman is 49-year-old Zhang Yin, the head of Nine Dragons Paper Holdings. According to Forbes, she is worth $1.5 billion, making her the fifth richest Chinese overall.

Zhang's fortune derives from recycling scrap paper purchased in the US and processing it in China for the thriving retail sector. She personally controls 72 per cent of Nine Dragons Paper, a company that was listed in Hong Kong in March last year. According to the Hurun Report, the role of China's businesswomen had undergone "dramatic changes" and they now accounted for 7 per cent of the top 500 richest Chinese.