BJ Home to the 6th Highest Number of Billionaires in the World

New York City was claimed top position on the Wealth-X list with 103 billionaires, followed by the 83 billionaires in Hong Kong, ranked separately from other mainland Chinese cities due to its status as a special administrative region.

Shenzhen was the only other mainland Chinese city to make the top 10, tying Mumbai for ninth place with 39 billionaires.

Beijing also showed its nationwide dominance for wealth accumulation in Forbes' most recent ranking of the world's richest cities. According to its 2017 list, Beijing came fourth out of international cities with the highest number of billionaires with 54, trailing only its international peers New York City, Hong Kong, and Moscow.

However, some wealth rankings not only place Beijing as China's wealthiest city, but as the world's foremost center of wealth.

Published this past February, the Hurun Global Rich List 2018 named Beijing as "the undisputed billionaire capital of the world" for the third year running. Having been blessed with 37 new billionaires for a total of 131, the Shanghai-based Hurun again put Beijing ahead of New York City in top position on a top 10 list bolstered by mainland Chinese cities like Shenzhen, Shanghai, and Hangzhou.

Even with obvious discrepancies between the various wealth aggregators, some Chinese news outlets could not contain their ebullience at China's wealth creation, reportedly responsible for minting four new billionaires every single week.

In an op-ed for China Daily, University of International Business and Economics visiting professor Mike Bastin described the "bumper billionaire bonanza" as "awe-inspiring," concluding that "billionaires, modernization, and high technology are now combining to maximum economic effect" on the Chinese market.

And yet, some are wary over the growing disparity between China's haves and have-nots.