NewChinese tax bureau admits to keeping personal pleasure resorts

Taxmen in Heilongjiang province were discovered to be keeping at least two luxury mountain resorts and a farm, built with taxpayers’ funds, that supplied a private cache of fresh meat and produce to officials.

The resorts were reportedly built as a retreat for retired officials of Mudanjiang city’s tax bureau. One resort, located on a mountain more than 10 kilometres northwest from downtown, was opulently furnished and built with expensive wood. It featured several villas.

The premises also featured an animal farm along with a large greenhouse for vegetables. A manager of the resort told Xinhua news agency that the property had two functions: to be a place where tax officials can rest and enjoy leisure, and to supply “green” and “safe” vegetables and meat exclusively to the bureau.

Staff at the farm, which was publicly funded, were not allowed to sell the produce elsewhere.

Though officials typically arrived only in spring, staff were busy during the winter, tending to vegetables, pigs, goats, geese and chickens.

Another mountain resort, more than 100 kilometres from the city and fronting a lake, was even more expensive to build, and was meant for senior officials.

The two-floor property was equipped with lifts, a small cinema, an entertainment room for karaoke, as well an automatic mahjong table in the centre of the lobby.