Man who lived in tree on trial

A man who spent 108 days living in a tree to demand more compensation after his home and shop were demolished went on trial in Chongqing's Fengjie County People's Court yesterday for disturbing public order.

Chen Maoguo , known as the 'bird man', had lived in a rough shed in a 12-metre-high tree for 31/2 months from August last year.

His two-storey, 1,200 square metre house, which included a ground-floor shop, was knocked down by the government at the end of 2008 to make way for a highway project.

He climbed down in November after the Zhuyi town party secretary promised he would receive the 800,000 yuan he demanded, but he was arrested a few hours later.

The government gave Chen 310,000 yuan in compensation for knocking down his house, and the developer building the highway was to pay him 260,000 yuan more for the loss of his shop. But Chen demanded more and climbed up a tree that had stood beside his house. He hung his business licence and other certificates on his temporary tree house to prove that his shop had been legal.

Every morning he dropped a rope down from the tree, to which his wife would tie a plastic bag of buns or sweet potatoes. Later he would lower a plastic bag of excrement, which his wife would dispose of.