(TMTPOST)— Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen remain the top three cities where Chinese entrepreneurs with wealth exceeding US$1 billion prefer to live, although the number of billionaires in all the three cities dropped. Beijing is home to 91 billionaires, down from 109 in 2023. Shanghai hosts 87 billionaires in this year’s list, a net decline of 16 from 2023. Shenzhen has only 84 billionaires in 2024, down from 94 in 2023. 

The fifth position where China’s billionaires are concentrated goes to Hangzhou, which is located in the Yangtze River Delta region. The region, which also includes Shanghai, boasts 252 billionaires. The Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area contributed 220 billionaires in 2024, with 84 from Shenzhen alone.

Taipei ranks fifth, with 45 billionaires this year, compared with the seventh position in 2023. It lost one billionaire in the year from 2023 to 2024.

Among the top 20 billionaires in China, eight reside in the Yangtze River Delta region. Zhong Shanshan, the founder of China’s bottled water giant, Ding Lei, a tech tycoon, Li Shufu, the founder of automaker Geely, and Jack Ma, the founder of e-commerce behemoth Alibaba are all residents of Hangzhou, the capital of Zhejiang province. Colin Huang, the founder of e-commerce giant Pinduoduo, Liu Yonghao, the tycoon of animal feed production, and Liu Xiangyu of East Hope, a company investing in electricity, non-ferrous metals, bio-chemicals, and other industries, reside in Shanghai, while Yan Hao of Pacific Construction resides in Nanjing, and Chen Jianhua and Fan Hongwei of Hengli reside in Suzhou. The remaining 12 billionaires include seven residing in the Greater Bay Area, six of whom live in Hong Kong, with the exception of He Xiangjian of Midea Group residing in Foshan, Guangdong province.

China continues to top the list with 814 billionaires. Fifty-five of them made their debuts on the list, ranking third globally in terms of new entries.

China also has the highest number of self-made billionaires in the world and the highest number of self-made female billionaires.

Zhong Shanshan, the founder of Hangzhou-based bottled water and soft drinks giant Nongfu Spring, has been named China's richest person for the fourth consecutive year and the 21st richest globally, with a net worth of 450 billion yuan (US$ 62,000 million). Following him are Colin Huang in Shanghai, the founder of Chinese e-commerce giant Pinduoduo, and tech giant Tencent's Pony Ma in Shenzhen. 

A total of 3,279 billionaires from 2,435 companies worldwide made this year's list, up from 3,112 last year. Elon Musk reclaimed the title of the world's richest individual, with a fortune of 1.67 trillion yuan (US$231.6 billion). This is his third time being named the world's richest person in the last four years.