From rags to richest: Hu Run crowns a new Queen

Hu Run unveiled his annual list of the richest folks in China (that Hu Run can find info on) yesterday in Shanghai. Once again, Shanghaiist contributors missed the cut by a few billion kuai. Bummer! In a list of names that we know very little about and care little for, there is one interesting twist: A new king has been crowned ... or queen rather. Huang Guangyu after sitting atop the exclusive list for two years running have been knocked off his regal perch by Zhang Yin (pictured), who rang in at an astounding 27 billion kuai, dwarfing Huang’s paltry 20 billion sum.

As the first woman to have occupied this position, Zhang is truly a rags to riches story(bad pun intended), having made her fortune in recycling paper and other waste material. To put things in perspective, her net worth well surpasses those of talk show personality Oprah Winfrey and Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling -- and Zhang is not the only woman to have made it big in China, as the top 500 list includes 34 other female entrepreneurs.

All this money talk is making us see green, or red rather as the case is in China. Wanna buy an ad on Shanghaiist? With your help, maybe, just maybe, we will make the list next year!