Wu Yajun (吳亞軍)

Company: Longfor Properties (龍湖地產(chǎn)公司)

Headquarters: Beijing

Main focus: Real estate

Title: Chairwoman

Age: 47

With a net worth of US$5.9 billion this year, Wu Yajun maintains her position as China's richest woman. After graduating from Northwestern Polytechnic University in 1984, Wu worked as a mechanical engineer and media reporter and editor until 1993, at which time she went into property development.

In 1995, Wu founded Longfor Properties in her hometown of Chongqing. Since then, she has helped Longfor to grow from a small company into a famous business empire in China. In 2009, the company went public in Hong Kong; while in 2010, its sales revenues surged 81 percent from the previous year to reach US$4.9 billion.