Jointly published by the Industrial Bank and Hurun Report
The “HNWIs” mentioned in the report refer to those individuals with personal assets exceeding CNY 6 million; specially, “HNWIs with billions of assets” refer to those individuals with personal assets exceeding CNY 100 million; “richest individuals” refer to those individuals ranked top 10% among HNWIs. HNWIs’ assets include personal real assets (e.g. dwelling, property for investment) and financial assets (e.g. stocks, funds, debts, deposits and insurances).
●By the end of 2013, HNWIs with personal assets exceeding CNY 6 million increased to 2.9 million, up 100,000 people (over 60% of them living in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou) than that of last year. HNWIs with billions of assets increased to 67,000 people, up 2,500 than that of last year.
●The spiritual satisfaction degree of HNWIs is 75 points out of 100 points, richest individuals have a higher degree of spiritual satisfaction degree.
●Health, travel and education are the three major fields of spiritual investment, followed by social responsibilities (philanthropy, environmental protection and tax payment), insurances and beliefs.
●Food, travel and sports are the three major hobbies of HNWIs, and men have a higher interests in sports and philanthropy than women. Richest individuals favor more on fashion, philanthropy and wine-tatsing.
●The self health satisfaction degree of HNWIs is 79 points out of 100 points. They manage health generally through healthy diet and sports.
●HNWIs exercise 3 hours on average per week. Running is the most popular sport, followed by badminton and swimming.
●Over 80% of HNWIs receive physical examination annually and 14% semiannually. The percentage of receiving physical examination semiannually among richest individuals is double than that of HNWIs.
●In 2003, over half HNWIs travelled aboard at least one time with an average spending of 64,000 yuan.
●Among HNWIs, 70% improve themselves by training, 80% by reading with an average reading time of 10 hours; the average reading time among richest individuals reaches 15 hours.
●Among HNWIs, only 10% said they will not send their children to study aboard.
●HNWIs believes that environmental protection embodies social responsibility more than philanthropy, and their dissatisfaction degree on haze is 87%.
●Mircoblog and Wechat have improved the communication and access of philanthropy. Young HNWIs lay emphasis on supporting charities via social power.
●Although donations to public charities are declining these years, nearly 60% HNWIs still choose them. With the rapid development of private charities, about 50% HNWIs now choose them. And over 1/3 HNWIs choose direct donation to people in needs.
●3/4 HNWIs have brought insurances for themselves and family members with an annual premium of 13,000 yuan.
●The results are based on 1,019 copies of valid questionnaires to HNWIs with personal assets exceeding CNY 6 million, and over half of them come from second and third tier cities.
On May 27, 2014, Industrial Bank (IB) and Hurun Report jointly published China Spiritual Investments White Paper 2014. This is the third year cooperation between IB and Hurun Report after “Chinese Luxury Consumer White Paper 2012” and “Alternative Investment White Paper 2013”.
Spiritual investments refer to investments that facilitate spiritual development and inner satisfactions. Such investments carry no direct cash returns, but rather about spiritual happiness, which covering social responsibility, education, health, insurances, travel and other areas. This 60-page report was compiled based on 1,019 copies of questionnaires conducted by IB and Hurun Report to HNWIs with personal assets exceeding CNY 6 million in 31 provinces and cities.
Throughout 2013, Chinese economy continued to rise at stable pace, and GDP grew by 7.7% YoY. Although the growth of HNWIs has been slowed slightly, the growth of HNWIs with billions assets has been accelerated. By the end of 2013, the HNWIs in China increased to 2.9 million, up 3.6% (100,000) than that of last year, of which HNWIs with billions of assets increased to 67,000, up 4% (2500 people) than that of last year. And as Hurun Report forecasted, the number of HNWIs in China may reach 3.35 million in the next three years.
Xue Ruifeng, GM of Private Banking Department of Industrial Bank, introduced that, “As the first and only Equator Bank in China and a member of SEE, Industrial Bank has been committed to the social responsibility and green finance. Social responsibility and green finance are also important options of spiritual investments by HNWIs and focus of private banking. Understanding of spiritual investments will equip private banks with better horizon and perception to serve clients. And forward-looking research of the HNWIs' spiritual investments will be helpful to the healthy and sustainable development of private banks.””
Rupert Hoogewerf, the chairman and chief investigator of Hurun Report indicated, “Mental balance will enable entrepreneurs to undertake greater pressure. I am glad we’ve cooperated with Industrial Bank, one of the top 50 world banks and the first and only Equator Bank in China, for the third year consecutively and collaborated in researching hot topics concerned by the HNWIs in China.””
Geographic distribution of HNWIs
Of geographic distribution, Eastern China makes up 44%, while Northern China and Southern China is 23% and 18% respectively. And northeastern, southwestern, central China and northwestern region only makes up 15% in total.
Of provinces and cities distribution, the number of HNWIs of Beijing which reached 490,000, up 15,000 than that of last year, still ranked first in China; followed by Guangdong, Shanghai and Zhejiang with the number reached 486,000 million, 420,000 million and nearly 380,000 million respectively, up 17,000, 30,000 and 4,900 people respectively than that of last year. The number of HNWIs in these four provinces and cities totaled 1.776 million, taking up 61% of the total number in China. Besides the above 4 provinces and cities, the number of HNWIs of Jiangsu, Shandong, Fujian, Liaoning, Sichuan and Tianjin has also exceeded 50,000. Except for Inner Mongolia, Liaoning and Jilin, the number of HNWIs in all other provinces and cities has all increased.
Number and distribution of HNWIs (Top 10)
| Provinces/Cities | Number | Ratio (%) | Increase by | |
| 1 | Beijing | 490,000 | 16.9% | 15000 |
| 2 | Guangdong | 486,000 | 16.8% | 17000 |
| 3 | Shanghai | 420,000 | 14.5% | 30000 |
| 4 | Zhejiang | 379,900 | 13.1% | 4900 |
| 5 | Jiangsu | 216,000 | 7.5% | 8000 |
| 6 | Shandong | 111,000 | 3.8% | 6000 |
| 7 | Fujian | 109,000 | 3.8% | 2000 |
| 8 | Liaoning | 79,000 | 2.7% | -1000 |
| 9 | Sichuan | 71,300 | 2.5% | 2800 |
| 10 | Tianjin | 51,400 | 1.8% | 3900 |
| Others | 486,400 | 16.8% | ||
| Total | 2,900,000 | 100% | 3.6% |
Source: Hurun Report
Health, travel and education: The three fields of spiritual investment by HNWIs
The spiritual satisfaction degree of HNWIs is 75 points out of 100 points, richest individuals have a higher degree of spiritual satisfaction degree.
Health, travel and education are the three major fields of spiritual investment, followed by social responsibilities (philanthropy, environmental protection and tax payment), insurances and beliefs. More women invested in education than men. More men have a belief than women; the aging of people and increasing of assets level bring about more aspirations for beliefs. Over 30% of HNWIs has a religious belief, 23% in Buddhism and 6% in Christian, and all other beliefs are of no significant percentage. It is worth mentioning that over 60% of richest individuals has a belief.
| Spiritual Investment Fields | Proportion (%) | |
| 1 | Health | 88% |
| 2 | Travel | 79% |
| 3 | Education | 66% |
| 4 | Social Responsibility(philanthropy, environmental protection and tax payment) | 53% |
| 5 | Insurances | 49% |
| 6 | Beliefs | 24% |
| 7 | Immigration | 17% |
The HNWIs have an extensive interests and hobbies in which food, travel and sports ranked top 3. Men are more interested in sports and philanthropy than women. The richest individuals have even wider interests, mainly about fashion, philanthropy and wine-tasting.
| Hobbies of HNWIs | Proportion (%) | |
| 1 | Food | 76% |
| 2 | Travel | 73% |
| 3 | Sports | 65% |
| 4 | Family activities | 60% |
| 5 | Games | 47% |
| 6 | Fashion | 42% |
| 7 | Environmental Protection | 31% |
| 8 | Arts | 28% |
| 9 | SPA/hairdressing | 27% |
| 10 | Philanthropy | 20% |
| 11 | Wine-tasting | 18% |
| 12 | Night life | 10% |
| 13 | Politics | 4% |
The self health satisfaction degree of HNWIs is 79 points out of 100 points. They manage health generally through healthy diet and sports. HNWIs exercise 3 hours on average per week. Running is the most popular sport, followed by badminton and swimming.14% of HNWIs receive physical examination semiannually. The percentage of receiving physical examination semiannually among richest individuals is double than that of HNWIs
Interviewed HNWIs believed that, health is more important than travel, education and social responsibility in terms of spiritual investment. The self health satisfaction degree of HNWIs is 79 points, and men are more satisfied than women.
They manage health generally through healthy diet and sports, and regular physical examination. Family doctor/health consultant attracts more women clients. Emerging health management methods such as medical travel, medical club and injecting sheep placenta extract have been accepted by HNWIs gradually.
The healthy diet is achieved mainly by disciplined diet, food intake control and greasy food control, followed by excitant food intake control and not drinking.
Running is the most popular sport, followed by badminton and swimming. There is no significant difference in the above three sports between women and men. However, women more prefer yoga and riding, while men favors ball games like basketball and football. The higher level of assets, the more interests one have on golf and tennis. On average, they exercise three times a week and 1 hour per time. The percentage of taking daily exercises makes up 17%, and over ¾ HNWIs exercise more than one time per week. Men have a slight higher frequency of exercising than women.
80% of HNWIs receive physical examination annually and 14% semiannually. The percentage of receiving physical examination semiannually among richest individuals accounts for over 1/4. Public hospitals are still their primary choices, followed by domestic professional physical examination organizations. Among richest individuals, nearly 40% favor overseas hospitals and physical examination organizations. On average, HNWIs spend 1,500 yuan on physical examination every year, and men and older individuals spend more than women and younger ones. Richest individuals spend 3,500 yuan on average.
Last year, over half HNWIs travelled aboard at least one time with an average spending of 64,000 yuan
Travel is the second biggest field of spiritual investment among HNWIs. According to Hurun Report Best of Best Brand Intention Survey 2014, HWNIs with billions of assets favor Sanya, Hongkong and Tibet most for domestic travel, and Australia, French and Dubai for overseas travel. In high end overseas travel market, Antarctic, Arctic and Kenya that not so popular in the past has became hot destinations these years.
Last year, HNWIs travelled 4 times (including one for business) on average, of which domestically 3 times and overseas 1 time . HNWIs travelled for over 5 times, half of them have travelled at least one time abroad, and less than 20% of HNWIs have travelled abroad for more than 3 times. The major members of travel are 2 to 3 family members.
Over 50% of HNWIs choose to travel off holidays. For those choose to travel in holidays, domestic travels are concentrated in summer vacation, National Day and Spring Festival, and overseas travel are concentrated in summer vacation and Spring Festival. Destinations also vary depending on specific holidays. For example, more people go to Beijing in National Day and Sanya and Australia in Spring Festival.
The most frequently visited cities by HNWIs are Hongkong, Shanghai, Beijing, Sanya and Hangzhou. Besides business and sightseeing, other major reasons of tip to Hongkong include shopping, investment study and education; while trip to Shanghai and Beijing are primarily for business reasons.
For overseas travel, HNWIs choose Japan, U.S. and South Korea at most, followed by Thailand, Singapore, Germany and Australia. South Korea has become a new shopping destination among Chinese HNWIs. In November 2013, Korea Tourism Organization announced that, China will surpass Japan as the biggest tourists source country to South Korea, and the consumption level of Chinese tourists is increasing to middle and high end.
Travel agency and online booking websites are the main method in booking journey. Economy class of airplane is the primary choice for domestic and overseas travel, followed by self-driving for domestic travel and business class for overseas travel.
On average, HNWIs travelled 23 days, and men travelled more days than women. Domestic travel takes 4 days on average, and travel in remote regions such as Xinjiang, Tibet and Yunnan takes over 7 days. The average number of days for overseas travel is 7-8 days.
Men spend significantly higher than women during travel. HNWIs spend 35,000 yuan (exclude shopping) on domestic travel and richest individuals 43,000 yuan; HNWIs spend 64,000 yuan on overseas travel and richest individuals 110,000 yuan.
High end customerization, themed travel and in-depth travel have become the fashion among HNWIs. Over 20% of HNWIs demand customized high end travel service, and over 60% among richest individuals requires customized travel service.
Among HNWIs, 70% improve themselves by training, 80% by reading, the largest proportion.
The average reading time per week among HNWIs is 10 hours; and 15 hours among richest individuals.
Among HNWIs, only 10% said they will not send their children to study aboard.
Education is the third biggest area of spiritual investment among HNWIs, which comprised of self education and children education.
Reading (81%) is the generally recognized improvement way among HNWIs, and the most popular subjects are news, finance, history, specialized course and technology. Training (70%) is the second important improvement method, especially training on specialized courses to HNWIs with the personal assets of 10-30 million. 1/4 HNWIs (women in particular)choose interested courses; 10% of HNWIs attending MBA/EMBA program, especially among individuals over 30 years. Exhibition, forum/lecture also widely recognized by HNWIs, with a higher participation rate by men.
HNWIs choose to read online more than books. Wechat, a popular message software, is reckoned more as a networking tool rather a reading platform. The average reading time per week among HNWIs is 10 hours. Individuals with more assets tend to read longer time. The average reading time is 15 hours among richest individuals.
30% of HNWIs have already planned to send children to study abroad, 10% of HNWIs said they will not do so, and another 60% will decide according to the children's development. Among HNWIs with assets exceeding 10 million yuan, 70% of them have already planned to send their children to study abroad.
Among HNWIs with the plan to send children to study abroad, 40% intends to do so at children’s high school period and 40% at university period. Individuals with higher level of assets tend to send children abroad at younger age.
Regarding destination of children study, over 50% of HNWIs choose U.S, 25% choose U.K., and the percentage who choose U.S. is increasing every year. In choosing nations of study, 75% of HNWIs requires good social environment, 60% requires enough famous university and wide options, and another 40% requires moderate fees and pleasant weather.
Children’s education becomes one of the main reasons to immigrate, and 66% of HNWIs immigrate because of their children’s education.
HNWIs believe that environmental protection embodies social responsibility more than philanthropy, and their dissatisfaction degree on haze is 87%
Social responsibility is the forth biggest area of spiritual investment among HNWIs. Among HNWIs, there are respectively 20% and 31% deem philanthropy and environmental protection as their one of their hobbies, while men pay more attention on philanthropy and women on environmental protection. 13% of HNWIs believe that philanthropist is a status symbol deserving pride.
Tax payment(38%) is still considered the best way of performing social responsibility by HNWIs. With severe environmental problems, more individuals believe environmental protection embodies social responsibility, up from 17% in last year to 33%, taking the second place from philanthropy. Trust crisis to charities reduce the agreement on “philanthropy embodies social responsibility”, but many HNWIs still consider philanthropy as one of their hobbies, especially among male HNWIs.
Over 90% HNWIs engaged in philanthropy by donations with an average amount of 30,000 yuan per year. Male HNWIs are more generous by donating 36,000 yuan per year, and 40% of them donate over 50,000 yuan per year.
Over 50% of HNWIs choose to donate goods, and 1/3 of them practice philanthropy by themselves. For female HNWIs, nearly 70% choose to donate goods, and nearly 50% do good by themselves. Mircoblog and Wechat have improved the communication and access of philanthropy. Young HNWIs lay emphasis on supporting charities via social power.
Although the percentage who choose to donate via public charities has been declining yearly, nearly 60% of HNWIs still like to use this channel. With the rapid development of civil charities, about 50% of HNWIs choose them, and over 1/3 choose to donate directly to the people in needs. Among younger HNWIs, nearly 60% choose civil charities and over 40% donate directly. Over 80% HNWIs reckons that transparency and reputation are the most important criteria in choosing charities. Disaster relief, poverty alleviation and education are three major fields that supported by HNWIs' donations.
Over 50% HNWIs are not satisfied with the environment in China, especially the haze (87%). The dissatisfaction levels on other aspects, such as garbage treatment, pollution of toxic chemicals, global warming and water resource, are generally the same.
3/4 HNWIs have brought insurances for themselves and family members with an annual premium of 13,000 yuan.
Insurance is the fifth biggest area of spiritual investment among HNWIs. Besides social security as required by the state, 3/4 HNWIs have brought insurances for themselves and family members, of which more than 90% is domestic insurance and only 6% is global insurance. They brought insurance mainly for protection, transfer and lower risks by insurances.
The average annual premium paid by HNWIs is 13,000 yuan, and 40% exceeds 10,000 yuan. The average annual premium paid by richest individuals exceeds 22,000 yuan.
Regarding insurance products, medical insurance takes up 72%, followed by accident insurance (64%) and endowment insurance (48%). The HNWIs with higher level of assets have diversified insurance products, with a higher proportion on safeguard insurance, accident insurance, participating insurance and property insurance.
Half of HNWIs brought products from Ping An Insurance, followed by China Life Insurance and Pacific Insurance. The market shares of foreign insurance companies are generally small, only AIA exceeding 10%.
In purchasing insurance, over 40% HNWIs trust insurance agents that once served them; 30% trust friends and 1/4 trust account managers of banks. Banks are an important information source and purchasing channel for insurance investment, favored particularly by male and comparatively aged HNWIs.
In purchasing insurance product, internet and insurance companies are the primary information source, followed by friends recommendation, insurance agents and bank counters.
Method of Compilation:
Chinese Spiritual Investment White Paper 2014 results from the special survey to HNWIs in mainland China by the Industrial Bank and Hurun Report, and incorporated findings from Hurun Report Best of Best Brand Intention Survey 2014.
The survey was conducted during January and February 2014 across 31 provinces and cities, including Beijing (17.6), Guangdong (16.8%), Shanghai(14.2%), Zhejiang (12.4%), Jiangsu(7.1%),Fujian (3.6%), Shandong (3.6%),Liaoning (2.7%),Sichuan(2.6%) and Henan (1.8%). The objects of the survey are HNWIs with personal assets exceeding 6 million yuan, and there are 1,019 copies of valid questionnaire. Among the samples, individuals with assets between 6-10 million yuan make up 73%, 10-30 million 18.6%, 30-50 million 5.5% and 50+ million 3%. The male/female ratio is 6:4. The survey also includes face to face in-depth interview with dozens specialists in spiritual investment by the Industrial Bank and Hurun Report.
About IB
Headquartered in Fuzhou, Fujian Province, Industrial Bank (IB) is one of the first batch of joint-stock commercial banks approved by the State Council and the People's Bank of China. On February 5, 2007, IB was listed on Shanghai Stock Exchange (Stock Code: 601166) with registered capital amounting to RMB 19.052 billion. On October 31, 2008, IB became the first and only Chinese “Equator Bank”, which signifies that it takes a leading position in introducing advanced international mode, strengthening the control of environmental and social risks, and promoting scientific and sustainable development.
Since its establishment in August 1988, IB has been advocating the philosophy of "Sincere Service, Growing Together" and endeavored to offer comprehensive, top-quality, and high-efficient financial service for customers. By the end of March 2014, IB has established 101 branches (including HongKong Branch) across the countries and build correspondent banking relationship with over 1,000 banks around the globe. A comprehensive financial service group has been formed preliminarily, focusing on the principal banking businesses and covering trust, lease, fund, and assets management. According to the Ranking of Global Top 1000 Banks released by The Banker, a British magazine, IB ranks No.50 in terms of total assets, become one of the global top 50 banks. According to the latest Forbes Global 2000 released by Forbes in 2014, IB ranks No.129. In a series of appraisals conducted by domestic and foreign institutions, IB has won a number of important prizes, including “Best Asian Bank on Shareholders Return 2013”, “Annual Best Joint-stock Commercial Bank”, “Best CSR Performer”, “Annual Bank with the Greatest Innovative Power” and “Best Green Bank”.
About private banking of IB
The Private Banking Department of IB was established in April 2011. With headquarters located in Shanghai, it is a Class 1 department of IB at the head office level. This department aims at accelerating the development of private banking service, adapting to the demands of high-end customers, and extending the group of high-end customers, and it strives for forming distinctive features and comparative advantages in the field of private banking business at home. The department is committed to providing more professional, superior and efficient financial services to customers and meeting their multi-level demands.
About Hurun Report
Hurun Report is a full media group targeted at China’s high net worth individuals. Hurun Report is widely recognized as the foremost authority in tracking and influencing the rapid changes amongst China’s high net worth individuals. Hurun Report boasts three part, including Hurun Research Institute, Media and Market Survey.
Hurun Report was initiated in 1999, and now “Hurun Rich List” becomes the most authoritative ranking of the richest individuals in China and it is also regarded as the list of celebrities in the business field of China. In September 2013,Hurun Report has been released for the 15th year consecutively. ;After the Hurun Rich List, Hurun Report released Hurun Philanthropy List, a report on the top 100 Chinese individuals in terms of donation amount; Hurun Artist List, a report on the top 100 Chinese artists in terms of public auctioned price of their works; Chinese Luxury Consumer Survey, revealed top luxury brands favored by Chinese millionaires; Hurun Wealth Report on the numbers and regional distribution of Chinese millionaires; as well as Hurun Global Rich List and Hurun Global Richest Self-made Female Billionaires List.
Hurun Report media produces four magazines: Hurun Report, Hurun Schools Guide, Horse & Polo China, Wings & Water; 2 new media magazines on iPad and smartphone, and a department specialized in organizing business activities and planning for HNWIs in China.
Hurun Report iPad magazine now ranks the fist of the business & Investment hot apps in Apple App Store, becoming the first choice on wealth and life guide for Chinese HNWIs.
In 2013, Hurun Report organized 91 events, including dinner party, private wine party, high end forum, high end exhibit, press conference and Luxury Workshop, mainly in China.
At present, the audience of Hurun Report reaches 2,187,959 monthly, of which 1,719,800, 343,533, 58,610, 35,016 and 31,000 are come from mobile terminal, magazine, Hurun.net, direct email and social network respectively.
Rupert Hoogewerf was awarded the prestigious “2002 Person of the Year” by Neweekly magazine. He was granted “Magnolia Commemorative Award” by Shanghai municipal government in 2009, and was granted “Contribution Award for Support to the Development of Women” by the ACWF in 2010.