Chinese beverage magnate Zong Qinghou, chairman of soft drinks maker Wahaha, has topped the Hurun Rich List 2012 with a personal fortune of 12.6 billion U.S. dollars, said a report on Monday.

It is the second time the 67-year-old Zong has taken the crown after topping the list in 2010, said the report launched by the Shanghai-based Hurun Research Institute. The organization is known for its annual China Rich List.

Following Zong, Wang Jianlin of real estate giant Dalian Wanda, and Li Yanhong of China's search engine firm Baidu gained the list's second and third positions, respectively.

In a year when the Shanghai Stock Exchange fell 23 percent, 469 of the top 1,000 of the Hurun Rich List saw their wealth shrink, according to the report. These were mainly companies from the solar, textiles and retail sectors.

Meanwhile, 291 saw their wealth grow and 114 stayed the same. There were 150 new faces.

"Although this year has seen some significant bloodletting in terms of wealth, it is worth remembering that these entrepreneurs are still up 40 percent on two years ago and almost ten times from ten years ago", said Rupert Hoogewerf, Hurun Report Chairman and Chief Researcher.

Hoogewerf began compiling the China Rich List in 1999.

滬江英語快訊：2012年胡潤百富榜出爐！國內軟飲料巨頭娃哈哈集團的掌門人宗慶后及其家族繼2010年后再次登上中國首富的寶座，其財富總額高達800億元人民幣！大連萬達集團的的王健林以財富650億元排名第二。這也是自胡潤百富榜開創(chuàng)以來，地產業(yè)首次被超越，制造業(yè)排名第一。

2012年胡潤百富榜前10名榜單

來源：《2012雅居樂海南清水灣胡潤百富榜》
* 對比去年新進入前10名；?↑對比去年排名有所上升；↓對比去年排名有所下降；—對比去年排名保持不變