Huang Rulun is the most generous person in the country, having donated 161 million yuan (US$20 million) last year.

That's what the China Philanthropy Times concluded when it ranked the president of Century Gold Resources Group at the top of this year's China Charity Ranking.

But people may feel puzzled when they look at two other such lists: One is Hurun Report's 2006 China Philanthropy List, on which Huang is ranked third, with his beneficence jumping to 447 million yuan (US$56 million); the other is Forbes Chinese Mainland Charity Board, where Huang still leads, but his donation is listed as 158 million yuan (US$19.8 million).

Between the three lists, there are differences in terms of rank and donation amount.

Yu Pengnian, board chairman of Yu Pengnian Management (Shenzhen) Co Ltd, is first on Hurun Report's list with a donation of 2 billion yuan (US$250 million). But Yu is second on both the China Philanthropy Times and Forbes lists, and Yu's listed donation amount shrinks to 108.6 million yuan (US$13.4 million) and 93.6 million yuan (US$11.7 million) respectively.

Why are the results so diversified? Insiders say it is because the three lists adopt various statistics accounts and there is no a transparent and standard charity information collection and disclosure system in China.

Statistic accounting

China's first charity board was jointly conducted in 2004 by China Philanthropy Times and Rupert Hoogewerf, a British accountant who formerly worked for Forbes and then made the Hurun list.

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