Head of China's biggest private property developer has been ranked the country's wealthiest person, again, according to Forbes magazine's annual list of the world's richest people.

Wang Jianlin, president of Dalian Wanda Group, occupies the 29th rank in the world, with a fortune of $24.2 billion.

His close contender on the rich list, Jack Ma, has slipped to the second-richest person in China with $22.7 billion generated by his e-commerce empire Alibaba Group, whose much-highlighted IPO won Ma the richest in the Chinese mainland at Forbes' ranking in October last year.

Hanergy's chairman and CEO Li Hejun comes third with $21.1 billion in assets, according to the ranking released on Monday.

Bill Gates once again claimed the crown, a spot he's held for 16 of the past 21 years. His fortune grew $3.2 billion since last year to $79.2 billion. Carlos Slim Helu of Mexico comes in again at No 2 with $77.1 billion in assets while American investor Warren Buffett took back the third spot with $72.7 billion.

A record 300 spots on the list are held by Chinese, with 213 of them coming from the mainland, a 28.6 percent increase year on year.

Wang, who was listed 64th in 2014, also created a record by achieving the best-ever ranking ever held by a Chinese.