HEFEI - A court in East China's Anhui province on Tuesday convicted and sentenced the former head of the provincial tourism bureau to 12 years behind bars for bribe-taking.

The ruling was handed down by Anqing City Intermediate People's Court Tuesday after it found Hu Xuefan, previously director of Anhui provincial bureau of tourism, was guilty of having taken bribes totaling more than 4.6 million yuan (about 691, 729 U.S. dollars).

The court found that Hu or his family members accepted cash, shopping cards and gold bars while he held positions at Mount Huangshan Resort, the Huangshan City Committee of the Communist Party of China and the Tourism Bureau of Anhui Province from 1999 to 2014.

He helped more than 20 companies or individuals with allocation of tourism funds, resort ratings, personnel promotion and other decisions in exchange for bribes.

The court hearing started on Dec. 22, 2015. Hu confessed to the local procuratorate during the investigation but withdrew the confession later in court.

He was stripped of the illicit proceeds of 4.6 million yuan and was also fined 4 million yuan, according to Tuesday's court ruling.

Hu said he would file an appeal after the ruling.