A 26-year-old woman worth $16.2 billion is the Chinese mainland's richest person, topping a list of tycoons whose wealth has soared amid a boom in stock and property prices, the business magazine Forbes said yesterday.

The fortune of Yang Huiyan - also Asia's richest woman - is based on shares in Country Garden Holdings Ltd, a real estate developer founded by her father, Forbes said. It said the company's Hong Kong stock market debut this year made billionaires of Yang and four other people.

In second place was another developer, Hui Wing Mau, with a net worth of $7.3 billion. No 3 was Guo Guangchang, chairman of a manufacturing, retailing and real estate conglomerate, Fosun Group, with a fortune of $4.85 billion.