A court in the central province of Henan sentenced Xu Zongheng to death with a two-year reprieve for taking bribes of more than 33 million yuan ($5 million), Xinhua news agency said. His personal assets have also been seized.

Such rulings are typically commuted to life in prison.

Xu, 56, was removed as mayor in June 2009 during a sweeping crackdown on graft in Shenzhen, which lies just north of Hong Kong.

He took bribes from building material companies and officials between 2001 and 2009, when he served as a high-ranking official in Shenzhen and then mayor from 2005, the report said.

Calls to the court were not immediately responded to.

Shenzhen, in bustling Guangdong province, was a mere fishing village a generation ago but is now a city of 11 million people.

It blossomed over the past 30 years after being established as a special economic zone and held up as a model for China's manufacturing-based economic growth, but the corruption case has been seen by many as reflecting the dark side of reform.

President Hu Jintao and other top leaders have repeatedly called endemic corruption in China a threat to the ruling Communist Party's legitimacy.