Crisis? What crisis? Rich get even richer

Another fast riser this year was "Paper Queen" Zhang Yin, from Nine Dragons Paper, who is worth $4.9 billion and catapulted to the number two position.

Zhang and another 101 wealthy women account for 10.2 percent of the annual list of 1,000. And Chinese women make up more than half the population of the world's richest self-made women.

Hoogewerf predicted that the list will include many entrepreneurs involved in new energy and energy-saving initiatives or environmental protection. He said it was likely there would be two or three people from those industries with net assets of 10 billion yuan ($1.47 billion) within three years.

Hoogewerf, meanwhile, admitted that China's super rich may be even more plentiful than his list suggests.

"The real number of billionaires in China could be as many as 260," said Hoogewerf. "There are still a large number of billionaires off the radar screens."

Jin Yanshi, chief economist at Sinolink Securities in Shanghai, said: "In the 1980s, to be a Wanyuanhu (a Chinese word describing people possessing 10,000 yuan) was a great dream for many Chinese.

"The rich list reflects the changes in China's economy and also people's attitude and knowledge about wealth."

China has 825,000 individuals with a personal wealth of more than 10 million yuan and 51,000 individuals with more than 100 million yuan, according to the Hurun 2009 Wealth Report, released in May.

The National Bureau of Statistics put the urban per capita disposable income at 15,781 yuan ($2312) in 2008, an 8.4 percent year-on-year rise.