According to the Hurun Research Institute and GroupM Knowledge, Shanxi province now has 16100 people owning wealth of more than 10 million yuan ($1.63million), among them, 1,300 with more than 100 million yuan.

The GroupM Knowledge - Hurun Wealth Report 2013, published on August 14, also shows that China has more than 1 million people with between 10 million and 100 million yuan, up 3 percent year-on-year, and 64,500 with more than 100 million, up 2 percent, with Shanxi accounting for 1.4 percent of the first group and 2 percent of the last. Taiyuan, Shanxi's capital and a main city for China's rich, has 3,300 people in the first group and 330 in the second. Beijing, Guangzhou and Shanghai are the top three cities.

The report also suggests that growth in the numbers of rich people has been slowing down for the past two years, giving it its lowest growth rate for the past five years. There was even a decline in areas such as Zhejiang province and the Inner Mongolia region, while Shanxi's rate is down by 250 year-on-year.

The people with anywhere from 10 million to 100 million yuan are mainly in four categories – entrepreneurs, professional investors, real estate, and the "gold collar" group, with the first three accounting for the bulk of those with more than 100 million yuan.

Edited by Zhou Yuanyuan and Roger Bradshaw