Girl, 26, tops Forbes China rich list

The 26-year-old daughter of one of China's largest property developers came top in the annual Forbes survey of the country's rich, the results of which were announced on Monday. Yang Huiyan is worth US$16.2 billion thanks to her father, the low-profile chairman of Country Gardens, who transferred his shares to his daughter in 2005. The company listed in Hong Kong in April and its stock price as soared since then. Yang is worth nearly seven times the US$2.3 billion that put Gome CEO Huang Guangyu in top spot last year. All 40 members of this year's rich list are billionaires, up from just 15 in 2006. Their collective wealth is valued at US$120 billion, compared to US$38 billion last year. Despite seeing his worth increase by 56% to US$3.6 billion, Huang could only manage 10th place. Zhang Yin, chairman of Nine Dragons Paper, came in at 11, although her wealth jumped 126% to US$3.4 billion.