Beijing Becomes the Billionaire Capital of the World

If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere. More billionaires now live in Beijing than in the so-called "Greatest City in the World," with an even 100 compared to the US city's piddly 95, according to the Hurun Global Rich List 2016.

China has also overtaken the US, with 568 Chinese billionaires to 535 Americans with that level of wealth.

Along with Beijing, four other Chinese cities – Hong Kong, Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Hangzhou – made the top 10 global cities that are home to largest number of billionaires.

China is home to the most female billionaires, with 93 of 124 self-made women who appear on the list. No word on how many of them are single though.

“Despite its own slowdown and falling stockmarkets, China minted more new billionaires than any other country in the world last year, mainly on the back of new listings.  Growth in billionaires for the rest of the world was held back by a slowdown in the global economy, the strengthening of the US dollar and the drop in oil prices. The number of billionaires, however, has jumped 50 percent since 2013," said Rupert Hoogewerf, chairman and chief researcher of Hurun Report, who is based in Shanghai.

Interestingly, 9.8 percent of the members of the Global Rich List were born under the Chinese animal sign of the snake, followed by horse and ox, at nine percent and 8.8 percent, respectively. People born under the sign of the pig had the lowest representation, with 7.1 percent.

Read a detailed summary of the report here.

More stories by this author here.

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