BEIJING, Feb. 26 (Xinhua) -- Having spent the whole year slaving away on his farm in north China's Hebei Province for a mere 3,000 yuan (375 U.S. dollars), Liu Zhenfeng found himself giving away a third of his annual income during the Spring Festival, or Chinese lunar New Year.

For Liu, the most important holiday for family gathering has become a painful period of enforced cash-splashing.

It is a Chinese tradition that people working away from their hometown to be back home during the Spring Festival, visit relatives and exchange red envelopes with money, known as "hongbao", as a gesture of goodwill and kinship.

But the custom, which is supposed to add to the festival atmosphere, has become a heavy burden for people from low-income families in China. The distribution of gifts has become more frequent and the value of each gift has soared. Many "hongbao" contain 500 to 1,000 yuan.

"I gave away several hundred yuan to members of my wife's family when we went to visit them this festival. To make matter worse, half a dozen children of my relatives lined up for a "hongbao" so I had to give at least 100 yuan," he said.

"There is no way out now the custom has been set in stone," he said.

Deng Guoxiong, a farmer in Tianmen City of central China's Hubei Province, works in big cities for about three months every year to pay the tuition fees of his two sons. But a wealth of New Year parties has drained his savings.

"I received more than 20 invitations to parties in the weeklong holiday. I had to prepare at least 1,000 yuan in gifts," he said.

"Giving 'hongbao' seems to be the best way of improving relations with neighbourhood, but it is a real headache for me," he said.

Experts believe people still give "hongbao" that they can not afford because they do not want to lose face in front of their family members and neighbors.