BEIJING, Nov. 4 -- The richest on the Chinese mainland are getting richer: there are 10 billionaires this year in Forbes magazine's annual ranking of the nation's wealthiest people compared with three last year.

    Rong Zhijian, 63, chairman of Hong Kong-listed CITIC Pacific Group, maintained his perch atop the magazine's list of the country's richest.

    The 2005 list, released yesterday, shows Rong and his family with assets of US$1.64 billion, US$150 million more than last year.

    In second place is real estate tycoon Zhu Mengyi, whose net worth is reckoned at US$1.4 billion. Zhu, 46, who ranked 10th last year, saw his fortune triple over the past year, according to the list. He is among the seven newcomers to the billionaire club this year.

    Third on the list is 34-year-old Ding Lei, founder of Internet portal NetEase. The NASDAQ-listed company's boss has an estimated fortune of nearly US$1.3 billion, up from US$668 million last year. Ding led the 2003 list but dropped to sixth last year following a downturn in the dotcom industry.

    Huang Guangyu, founder of Gome the mainland's largest home-appliance retail chain dropped from last year's second position to fourth.

    But Huang, 36, was crowned the mainland's richest entrepreneur on a competing list published last month by Euromoney China. Compared with the US$1.25 billion Forbes estimates Huang is worth, London-based Euromoney put his fortune at US$1.7 billion.

    Another striking difference between the two lists is that the No 2 on Euromoney's list, Yan Jiehe, did not appear on the Forbes 400 at all. Euromoney estimates that Yan, chairman of Pacific Construction Group, is worth US$1.5 billion.