AFTER the Spring Festival, the Hui Nationality celebrates its

　　Corban Festival but Ma Rulin, a national model worker, has found he has little to celebrate.

　　Ma’s family lives in Kangle County of Gansu Province and they have only a small bunch of shallots and two bunches of leeks for the coming festival. There’s also about 150 kilograms of potatoes in the cellar.

　　Ma’s eldest son said the family had only one chicken to eat during the Spring Festival.

　　But the people of Kangle County know that Ma has been famous since the 1980s forshavingsmade a fortune from his tree plantations.

　　“My poverty-stricken life today can be mostly attributed to batches of officials visiting me after I had become well known,?said 61-year-old Ma.

　　To entertain and feed his high-level visitors, Ma had to spend most of his income, according to a report in the China Youth Daily.

　　Ma began in business when he was 15 years old. In 1988, he went back to his hometown with his bank savings. He contracted with the village head for 200,000 square metres of vacant land in the mountains on which to plant trees.

　　Ma and some colleagues threw themselvessintosthe project. He also invested all his money and was confident he would make his fortune because he had so many trees growing.

　　His troubles started after 1996 when officials began calling on him saying they needed to examine or supervise his business operations. For each visit, Ma had to prepare sumptuous meals with cigarettes, wine and fruit. Over the years, Ma had to spend hundreds of yuan on each batch of visitors.

　　In 1998, he received more than 20 separate groups of visitors.

　　Because Ma was unable to pay back his loan to a local bank, he was taken to court in 2001. Today he still owes more than 40,000 yuan (US,840) to the bank and his total debts amount to about 100,000 yuan (US,000).

　　The director of the county’s Farming Bureau, Ma Yongzhong, admitted he had brought some officials on visits to Ma.“But in most cases, I paid for myself,?he said.“I wouldn’t treat an old farmer unfairly.? The director also said the bureau had released 35,879 yuan (US,338) in funds to support Ma during 2001 and 2002.

　　He said he believed there were many reasons for Ma’s poverty, including relatives living in his home and poor management.

　　The county Party secretary, Li Xuemin, said initial investigations showed that some officials did have meals at Ma’s home.

　　Li said the county’s Party Commission was launching an inquirysintosthe whole affair.