The Australian mining magnate, Clive Palmer handed out over 10 million dollars worth of Christmas bonuses to his lucky staff.

55 Mercedes-Benz cars and 700 overseas holidays were handed out to the Townsville nickel refinery staff.

The staff that missed out on a holiday or car didn’t miss out entirely; Palmer spent $2 million on a Christmas party.

They already drive flashy cars, wear expensive watches and eat at top-end restaurants. Now rich Chinese businessmen have found a new way to flaunt their wealth – luxury boats.

“They want to go out on the ocean and have fun — and take VIP clients to fish and negotiate deals,” said Zheng Weihang, secretary general of the China Cruise and Yacht Industry Association.

With the second-largest number of dollar billionaires in the world after the United States, according to Forbes magazine, China is drawing eager foreign marina developers and boatmakers to its shores to tap the fast-growing market.

China currently has around 1,000 luxury powerboats and yachts moored around the country, and the number is expected to balloon to more than 10,000 over the next five years, Zheng told AFP.

A new poll from SEI Wealth Network, a wealth-advisory firm, suggests that a majority of millionaires have signed up for social media sites. There is just one problem: They don’t have time to actually use them.

70% of respondents with $5 million or more in investible assets are users of Facebook and other social media sites. But the poll also showed that only 17% of the multimillionaires use the sites on a daily basis.

That is far less than the broader population, in which 38% use such sites at least once a day. The main reason: the wealthy are squeezed for time.

Hurun Research Institute has released the Hurun Rich List 2010, the twelfth annual ranking of the richest individuals in China.

The list names 1,363 individuals with a personal wealth of 1 billion yuan (US$150 million), up from 1,000 last year and just 24 a decade ago.

China – the world’s second largest economy – has the fastest growing wealthy population in the world, according to a report by Merrill Lynch and Capgemini.

65-year old Zong Qinghou of Wahaha is the richest man in China with a personal fortune of US$12 billion.

The ranks of Asia-Pacific millionaires are likely to continue growing faster than those from developed countries as regional economies led by China and India power ahead, a report said on Tuesday.

The study on high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs) — defined as anyone with investable assets of at least one million US dollars — was issued by Merrill Lynch Global Wealth Management and consultancy firm Capgemini.

“Moving forward, China and India will lead the way in the region with economic expansion and HNWI growth likely to keep outpacing more developed economies,” the Asia-Pacific Wealth Report said.

Forbes released its 2010 list of the 400 richest people in America this week, and Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates was in the top spot for the 17th consecutive year.

Industrialist Warren Buffett, Chief Executive Officer of Berkshire Hathaway Inc, has bagged the second place this year with fortunes worth $45 billion.

While worth $27 billion dollars, software company Oracle’s co-founder and CEO Larry Ellison is the third richest American.

With a net worth that grew by nearly $4.9 billion, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg had the largest percentage gain this year, jumping from 158 to number 35 with $6.9 billion.