中国亿万富豪中谁的财富缩水了？

　　An economic slowdown in China that has hit some industries and firms harder than others, along with personal misfortunes, have left a minority of the country's richest people less well-off this year: According to data from Hurun Research Institute's annual ranking of wealthy Chinese, some 252 on its richest 1,000 list saw their wealth shrink.

　　Misfortunes amongst the rich shouldn't come as a surprise after equity in general has had a bad year in China; the Shanghai Composite Index is down 1.2% since the start of the year. In fact, the majority of China's 315 people who have north of $1 billion got poorer.

　　Hong Kong's Hang Seng and Nasdaq have gained 1.2% and 26.0%, respectively, year to date.

　　The Chinese billionaire whose wealth suffered the most was 56-year old Gao Yanming, chairman of Hebei Ocean Shipping Co. Ltd. His wealth declined by 46% to $1.3 billion, ranking him No. 189 on the list, down from No. 26 last year.

　　The billionaire whose wealth suffered second most was 53-year old Li Congyin of men's clothing manufacturer and retailer Jiumuwang (China) Co. Ltd. His assets fell by 44% to $2.99 billion, placing him as No. 299, down from No. 82 last year.

　　Making one's wealth in the retail industry hurt a number of other Chinese billionaires, including Zhou Chengjian of casualwear firm Metersbonwe Group, Gao Dekang of apparel company Bosideng International Holdings, Xu Yu & Li Shanhu of retailer Trendy International Group and Sheng Beijiao of women's footwear retailer Belle International Holdings Ltd.1880.HK +0.18% Their net wealth declined by 41%, 11%, 7% and 1%, respectively.

　　Online shopping, slower economic growth and more distinguishing Chinese consumer have slowed sales at some retailers. Apparel had a bad year, the second one in a row, with the richest 30 Chinese in the business seeing their fortunes drop by 16%, the report said. Mr. Zhou's decline in wealth adds to a 36% drop last year, also on the back of poor performance at Metersbonwe, it said.

　　Still, some billionaires in the industry beat the odds, including Ma Jianrong of Shenzhou International, China's No. 59 richest. Shenzhou manufactures knitwear for customers like Uniqlo, Nike and Adidas.

　　Three Chinese billionaires who got knocked off the top-10-richest list saw their wealth decline: Liang Wen'gen of construction-equipment maker Sany Heavy Industry was the fifth-richest last year, but only No. 15 this year. His wealth fell by 19%, marking a decline for the second year, as performance suffered at his two publicly traded companies under Sany. Mr. Liang was China's richest man in 2011.

　　Wu Yajun of investment holding company Longfor Properties, who was No. 8 richest last year, saw her wealth fall by 23%, putting her as No. 22 on this year's list. Ms. Wu divorced her husband Cai Kui in a $3 billion settlement, the most expensive ever, according to the report. The divorce bumped Ms. Wu off the top 10 list and catapulted her husband into the top 50, it said.

　　Finally, Liu Yongxing of alumina refinery East Hope Group, who has been on the top 10 list since 2008, was bumped to No. 12 after his wealth declined by 15% to $6 billion. Mr. Liu was No. 6 last year and No. 1 in 2001.

　　One consolation for China's richest is that a fall in ranking this year didn't necessarily mean a fall in wealth. That's because the competition to make China's richest 1,000 list got fiercer: Contenders had to have at least $325 million in assets, a record high, to be part of the list this year.

　　This wasn't the case last year, when you could have had $290 million to make the richest list, down from $320 in 2011.

　　Zong Qinghou of beverage maker Hangzhou Wahaha Group is now China's second richest man, ceding the No. 1 spot to Wang Jianlin of property conglomerate Dalian Wanda Group. But 68-year-old Mr. Zong's wealth still swelled by 48% to $18.7 billion, an amount far out of reach for even the poorest of China's richest.