Basketball giant Yao Ming of the Houston Rockets tops Forbes Chinese Celebrity List for the third time, according to the Chinese Forbes Magazine.

The US-based magazine held "The Stars' Commercial Value and Brand Communication" forum on Thursday in Beijing.

Income in 2005 was the biggest single factor in compiling the list of 100 personalities. In addition, the list attempts to track the transfer of fame into fortune, while media coverage was also counted.

The 2.16 metre-tall super centre has an all-round lead in both annual income and media coverage. A pre-tax income of 170 million yuan (US$20 million) has put him in the leading place. The money combines his salary with the US NBA team Houston Rockets and endorsements with world renowned brands such as Nike and Visa. He also had the most press coverage and the second highest number of Web hits, according to the Chinese edition of Forbes.

The poll is almost occupied exclusively at the top by actors, actresses and athletes.

The hot actress Zhou Xun, starring in Hong Kong veteran director Peter Chan Ho-Sun's musical movie "Perhaps Love," ranked second. The internationally-famous Zhang Ziyi and the television nymphet Vicki Zhao Wei were the third and fourth.

China's Olympic high hurdles champion Liu Xiang ranked the fifth.

Last year's "Super Girls" are big winners in the list with the champion Li Yuchun ranking sixth, the runner-up Zhou Bichang at 45 and the second runner-up Zhang Liangying at 55. Li also won the title "New Star of the Year' while Zhang was chosen as the cover of the March issue of Chinese Forbes magazine.

"The immaturity of China's entertainment and sports industries has not prevented the country of 1.3 billion from having its own celebrity stars," Zhou Peng, editor-in-chief of Chinese Forbes magazine, told China Daily. "The stars are products of the entertainment industry and their income and commercial value are directly influenced by the progress of the industry."

Forbes, which began to publish in China last year, confined its list to stars born in the Chinese mainland "in view of the fact that the mainland's show business still lags behind Taiwan and Hong Kong. But Chinese stars are doing better than before on the home front."

Source: China Daily