Updated on Sunday, March 11, 2007, 00:00 IST

Beijing, Mar 11: Indians topping Forbes' list of Asian billionaires, replacing the Japanese, have flabbergasted the Chinese, who are regularly reading that India is not shining as reported by the Western media and experts.

"I am surprised that Indians have topped the Forbes' list of Asian billionaires," Chen Yu, a media consultant said.

"I must change my distorted impressions about India," she said.

With 36 of its citizens worth over a billion dollars, India replaced Japan as Asia's top breeding ground for the super-rich, the Forbes 2007 listing of billionaires said this week.

Amongst the top dozen Asian billionaires, there were eight Indians led by steel baron, L N Mittal. Asia added 54 new billionaires in the last one year, 14 of which were from India. In other words, every fourth new Asian billionaire was from India.

Compared to the impressive performance by Indian entrepreneurs, the only mainland Chinese to figure among the top 70 richest amongst Asians was Yan Cheung, the self-made woman entrepreneur of Nine Dragon Paper Co, who is the richest in China.

Ting Guo, an executive with a multinational company said India's rise is also as impressive as that of China but mostly went unreported or underreported in the Chinese media.

Zhang Jing, a Chinese journalist with the China Information World also said that she was unaware of India's growth story and had a good impression of the software sector.

Bureau Report