They’ve become one of the world’s most influential social groups and now a little more light has been shed on the makeup of China’s rising band of rich.

The HSBC corporation and international research company Nielsen have just released their findings into a survey that attempts to dissect the makeup of the richest 10 percent of the population of eight countries in the Asia-Pacific region.

The countries focused on were mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, India, Indonesia, Malaysia and Australia.

Carlos Slim Helu remained the world’s richest person, but Asia is where today’s big money is flowing, Forbes magazine said in its 2011 list of the world’s billionaires.

Slim, who is almost unknown to the general public outside Mexico, weighed in at a staggering $74 billion of net wealth thanks to his telecoms empire. Already the top dog last year, he increased his fortune by $20.5 billion dollars.

In a now familiar second place was Microsoft founder Bill Gates with $56 billion. The relatively lowly ranking reflected his enormous philanthropic give-aways over the year.

China will be the world’s biggest luxury goods market by 2020 as its economy booms and an emerging middle class spends a growing chunk of their cash on high-end items.

Over the next decade, Chinese consumers — including a surging number of billionaires — will account for 44 percent of global spending on goods such as bags, vehicles, watches, shoes and clothes, the report by brokerage CLSA said.

The nation’s luxury goods sector was worth $25 billion in 2009, or about 10% of the world market, including purchases by consumers in HK, Macau and Taiwan.

A Chinese face or two in the crowd at the world’s auction houses often means one thing: the gavel will fall on a price far beyond the seller’s wildest dreams.

Fierce bidding by Chinese buyers for a vase at a small London auctioneer in November, for example, drove the price up nearly 40 times beyond its estimate, from around $1.9 million to $70 million.

It was the highest price ever paid for a Chinese artwork sold at auction and equivalent to a huge lottery win for the sellers, who found the 18th Century Qianlong Emperor-era piece while clearing out a house after a relative died.

Luxury-brand awareness is growing among China’s super rich, who recognize 20% more of the lavish brands than they did last year, according to the Hurun Report.

The 2011 Best of The Best Survey, which interviewed 401 Chinese mainland millionaires, each with assets of more than 10 million yuan ($1.5 million), said the super rich in China are developing more sophisticated tastes in luxury products.

“Chinese entrepreneurs are getting more and more sophisticated, discerning and confident in their personal style, and what they aspire to, as they try to turn new money into old money,” said Rupert Hoogewerf, founder of the Hurun Report.

After years of waiting for China to lift heavy restrictions on airspace, wealthy travellers and aircraft manufacturers have reason to celebrate — the country’s skies are opening up to private flights.

The makers of helicopters and small business jets are predicting a major bump in sales — France’s Dassault Falcon just moved its Asia office from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, which it called the new “centre of gravity” for the market.

The private air travel industry “will be one of the fastest-growing sectors in the next 10 years”, Frank Lee, chairman of China Private Aviation Company, a consultancy offering aircraft acquisition and charter services, told AFP.