China’s biggest ever lottery prize has finally been taken home. A winning ticket worth 360 million Yuan ($52.7 million) and announced on October 8, 2009 was bought in Anyang of Henan by a middle-aged man surnamed An. However, it took authorities several weeks to identify the winner.

In China, lottery winners are required to collect money within two month after paying 20% of the amount in taxes. If a winner decides to donate, he/she doesn’t pay tax on the donated money. This time winner decided to donate 10 million Yuan to Henan Charity Federation and 600,000 yuan to Yan Mengmeng – a Henan girl suffering from uremia. So, in view of that, An will have to pay 69.9 million Yuan in taxes instead of 72 million.

This winning is unbelievably huge for an average China’s resident. With the average annual income of about 30,000 Yuan, Chinese residents would have to work more than 9,600 years to earn the equivalent sum of An’s winning.

An is going to maintain his current life style and invest some of the winning into his business.