The 59-year-old billionaire (pictured) was ranked No.1 for the first time on Hurun’s annual list with a fortune of $22 billion.
Beverage entrepreneur Zong Qinghou, owner of the popular canned-drinks company Wahaha, was second with $18.7 billion.
Third on the Hurun list was Ma Huateng, also known as Pony Ma, founder of Tencent Inc, a popular provider of online games and entertainment, at $10.1 billion.
One in four on the list of the top 1,000 earners made their fortunes in real estate and the number of Chinese worth at least $1 billion has increased by 64 to 315 this year.
Hurun says 559 of those on the list have seen their wealth grow, while 252 saw their fortunes shrink.
Image: © Getty
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