Ma Suofu, 47, has a motto -- to live boldly, be adventurous and pursue one's dreams.

Following this philosophy, Ma has truly realized his dreams -- to be a world champion, to make money in his real estate business and to continue his abiding love for performing acro-gymnastics, a highly specialized form of gymnastics which combines acrobatics.

After decades of efforts, Ma has balanced himself between the competitive field of world-class gymnastics and the challenging real estate market.

He is now busy working on both his US tour performance in March and his second real estate venture.

His powerful physique -- a chiseled 98.5 kilograms of it -- is at odds with his soft-pitched voice, while a gentle manner masks the steely determination necessary to reach the top in his two fields.

Although he heads the Blue Sky Real Estate Company in Chengdu, capital city of Southwest China's Sichuan Province, the former triple gold medallist in world-class gymnastics cannot tear himself away from his love for acrobatics.

After retiring at 30 in 1988, Ma formed the Jiannanchun Art Troupe, comprising some 30 acrobats, kung fu and qi gong (breathing excercise) masters and magicians. The troupe, with Ma as its director, has toured five continents.

In March, during a return visit to the United States, he will attempt to break his own 2002 Guinness World Record title, by holding a 33-metre-long bamboo pole -- one meter longer than he previously lifted and balanced -- weighing 165 kilograms. The attempt will be made in Louisiana, where he became a world champion nearly two decades ago.

During the 20-day tour he and the Jiannanchun Art Troupe are booked to perform in Florida, Nevada and Washington, D.C.

Back in China, he is working on the preliminary stages of his second real estate venture in Mount Qingcheng, in suburban Chengdu.

"Nobody believed I would succeed in the real estate sector, since they thought I was only an acrobat," Ma recalled.

In the late 1990s, real estate developers were selling houses like hot cakes in Chengdu.

Ma, who always wants to challenge himself with new ideas and adventures, decided to dabble in the real estate sector and established the Blue Sky Real Estate Development Company with 21 employees.

He invested 20 million yuan (US$2.4 million) to build the 16,800-square-metre Chengguang (Morning Glory) Science and Technology Building in downtown Chengdu in 1999.

"Sixty per cent of the investment in the building came from my earnings in acrobatic performances abroad, and the rest from financial support from Jiannanchun, a famous liquor producer in Sichuan, as well as a bank loan," Ma said.

Since the seven-story building was completed in 2000, Ma has earned about 9 million yuan (US$1.1 million) from it.

"But as a matter of fact, acrobatics always comes first for me. Whenever there is a major acrobatic performance, I will delay my real estate dealings," Ma said.

It is not surprising then that his own piece de resistance, "Knife Mountain," is one which leaves audiences holding their breath. Performed with his 21-year-old acro-gymnast partner, Wan Li, the stunt took literally thousands of hours of practice to perfect.

And every time it is performed Wan places her life on the line, or rather entrusts it to Ma's extraordinary strength and skill.

Balancing an 8.8-metre-long steel pole with 12 protruding knives on his shoulder, Ma stands rock steady as his partner climbs nimbly to the top where, with precision and grace, she goes through her acrobatic routine.

No safety harness or equipment is used during the five- to six-minute long stunt.

"I came up with the idea of performing 'Knife Mountain' in 1999 after seeing a Tibetan ritual," Ma recalled.

After two years of practice, Ma and Wan gave their debut performance in Chengdu in May 2002.

Since then, they have successfully performed the routine 380 times overseas.

"But I nearly gave up on mastering the highly dangerous routine after repeated failures in practice," Ma said.

Every day, he and Wan would spend six hours working on it, failing nine times out of 10.

"Once, the pole fell from my shoulder, while another time one of the knives sliced into Wan's leg," he explained.

"Almost every other acrobat we knew said we were trying to do the impossible."

Disheartened, they briefly abandoned the idea, but the more Ma thought about it, a new determination took hold and they once more committed themselves to the unique feat.

Not only does it wow audiences, the death-defying stunt earns Ma, whose early life was characterized by poverty, US$1,000 per performance.

"Uncle is optimistic," said Wan, who has known Ma since she was 8-years-old and has absolute faith in him. "Three times he has saved me from potentially fatal or crippling injuries."

Fear has to be swept to one side or else the risks are greatly increased, explained Wan.

"You learn to overcome fear, the discipline, training and trust which forms between you helps that," she said.

"Uncle is also kind-hearted and open-minded."

Busy performing

Ma and his troupe spend six months of the year on tour, mainly overseas. During a recent visit to Britain they performed at two prisons.

Like many other extraordinary episodes in Ma's life, this was to be no exception.

Among the inmates of one of the jails were three Chinese men serving lengthy sentences for robbery.

"I'm not sure who was most surprised," laughed Ma.

The trio, who had very little English when first incarcerated, had improved considerably and they acted as interpreters for the troupe. Drawing on his own life experiences, Ma gave a talk at the end of the show hoping to inspire some of those present.

"I encouraged them to repent and reform themselves and if they did they would be sure to have a bright future, that they do have hope," Ma said.

As an example of how it is possible to overcome what is seemingly impossible, Ma used an episode from his own life.

He described how he had longed to join China's national team, but at what seemed the last opportunity he was narrowly beaten in a deciding contest and lost the place.

"I was 29, a late age for an acrobat," he said. "I was depressed and frustrated, but then I told myself I had to cheer up and work even harder to make it into the team the following year."

Not only did Ma make it onto the team, he took the world title.

"I told them (the prisoners) there is hope if they worked as hard to reform themselves as I had to practise to win the title," he said.

From time to time, Ma and some of the troupe put on free shows at juvenile penal institutions and in poverty-stricken areas in China, again in an attempt to bring hope or inspiration to those marginalized by society.

Ma himself believes that if not for his innate gymnastic and acrobatic skills and the opportunities he got in his boyhood, he could well have ended up in similar straits.

Skilled performer

Born in 1957 into a poor family of seven children, three of whom died young, in Dazu County in the easternmost part of Sichuan, Ma became involved with a local gymnastics team when he was 9.

His gymnastic skills quickly improved and at the age of 14 he came first in the bar, vault, ring and freestyle events at a competition held in the Daxian Prefecture, which had Dazu County under its jurisdiction.

The win landed him a place with the Daxian Prefecture Acrobatic Troupe, with whom he performed for the next 10 years. Sichuan Sports Acrobatic Team coach Zhang Yanchuan spotted Ma during a televised performance and invited him to join the prestigious team.

Ma was 26, when, in 1983, he finally joined the Sichuan Sports Acrobatic Team, where coach Zhang insisted he sign a contract agreeing not to marry until he became world champion.

The team leaders thought Zhang had made a mistake by taking on Ma, who they considered too old to become a champion.

But Zhang's faith was rewarded.

"For four consecutive years from 1984 to 1987, myself and three other team members won in the National Sports Acrobatic Competition," said Ma.

"In October 1987, we became the champions in the four-man team competition in the World Cup for Sports Acrobatics held in the United States."

"Until then the Soviet Union had dominated the competition, winning gold for 10 consecutive years."

Ma's climb to the top has literally been paved with blood, sweat and tears, including the loss of the woman he loved for 10 years.

To prepare for the World Cup for Sports Acrobatics, Ma and a teammate had to throw another partner into the air and catch him as he came out of a multiple somersault.

"Each day we practised it 50 times," Ma recalled.

" I often woke up at night with pain in my hands. My injured hands trembled so much that I couldn't even use chopsticks."

During training as a base man, Ma was required to support eight others, whose combined weight was 500 kilograms, for half-an-hour each day.

"Because of the harsh training regime, for a while I even felt I would break down mentally," said Ma, shrugging off the memory with a pragmatic grin.

After Ma joined the Sichuan Sports Acrobatic Team, Ma had to separate with his girlfriend, an announcer with the Daxian Prefecture Acrobatic Team.

"It took about 15 hours to reach Daxian from Chengdu by train, where I was, and we could meet only once a year," said Ma.

But the rewards for Ma in becoming the world champion were tremendous, too. He has garnered three gold medals in world championship competition.

After retiring from the Sichuan Sports Acrobatic Team in 1988, Ma married Yang Ping, a former acrobat in Chengdu with whom he now has a 13-year-old daughter.

Apart from being active in performing, Ma has become increasingly enthusiastic about training promising young acrobats and gymnasts.

Since 1993 he has been the senior coach of the Sichuan Acrobatic Art Centre.

In 2005, he plans to open his own school for between 150 to 200 students aged 7 to 18 in Chengdu.

Currently there are more than 20 State-owned acrobatic schools in China and numerous private ones, said Fu Qihui, chairman of the Sichuan Acrobatic Artists' Association.

Whenever asked if he is too old as an acrobat or how long he can still perform, Ma replies that he has confidence in himself.

"I can perform for many years," he said.

(China Daily February 9, 2004)