Forbes Global's annual ranking of China's richest people for the current year was unveiled Thursday in Beijing, doubling the number of the selected from the year- earlier level of 100.

The list included 35 people from Guangdong, an economically developed province in south China, 22 people from Shanghai, the largest metropolis of eastern China, and another 22 from the nation's capital.

The world leading business journal named Larry Rong Zhijian, chairman of the Hong Kong-based conglomerate CITIC Pacific, as the mainland's richest man with assets of US$1.5 billion.

Rong was followed by Wong Kwong Yu, owner of the leading electrical appliances retailer, Guomei, with assets of US$1.3 billion; and by Chen Tianqiao, or Tim Chen, chairman of the Shanda Networking that specializes in online game development, with assets of US$1.28 billion.

The first 100 people in the ranking have US$29.2 billion in combined assets, a growth of 42 percent compared with those for the year-earlier ranking.

This year's list illustrates that wealth that once relatively concentrated in southern China and Hong Kong is now really spreading widely in China, said Jeff Zou, editor of Forbes China.

(Xinhua News Agency November 5, 2004)