Rich Pickings

Of the top 10 people from the mainland on Forbes' latest list, five are aged under 50. Two of these come from the IT sector, while one is involved in pharmaceuticals.

Zong Qinghou, 65, the chairman of multi-billion-dollar beverages company Wahaha Group, fell from the top spot to third place. His $5.9 billion (4.2 billion euros) fortune also put him at 169th place in the world.

"Rich Chinese people are younger and more globalized, with higher education backgrounds and rich life experiences," Luo says.

"The industries they work in are gradually turning from the traditional, monopolized ones to new industries which advocate innovation. These are more rich people from the grassroots while in the past, those on the list were mostly from rich families themselves."

Baidu's Li himself was born in Yangquan, Shanxi province. He was the fourth child in a family of five children and designed real-time information systems for many Wall Street companies after discontinuing his graduate studies in the United States. For Baidu's year-end party, Li's name was clad in neon lights as he danced on stage with his clumsy moves projected on a large screen before screaming employees.

Jack Ma, another Chinese IT entrepreneur who heads business-to-business website Alibaba, is a former English teacher who had taken English-speaking tourists on visits to the famous West Lake in Hangzhou, capital of Zhejiang province. Ma, 46, is worth $1.6 billion (1.1 billion euros) and ranked 48th in the Chinese mainland on Forbes' list.

Russell Flannery, senior editor at Forbes and involved in compiling its list for the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan, says it is a "remarkable achievement" that China's economy can grow so fast and have so many people building their businesses and finding their way onto the list.