A bird's-eye view of Yixing. [Photo/ourjiangsu.com]

Yixing, a county-level city of Wuxi, East China's Jiangsu province, was chosen to pilot the construction of key national beautiful countryside, receiving 100 million yuan ($15.5 million) in funding from the central government, local media reported on Sept 8.

The fund will be mainly used to promote village construction according to local conditions, enhance the rural landscape, and stimulate rural revitalization through digital and smart governance. The construction cycle will be one year, according to officials.

Yixing is the largest agricultural sector in Wuxi and in southern Jiangsu, with rural areas accounting for 75 percent of the city's total area.

To date, Yixing has built five "beautiful leisure villages in China" and 10 "provincial characteristic rural villages". The city has also been working to build a beautiful rural belt taking advantage of its natural resources, including mountains, lakes, tea gardens, and bamboo forests.

The improved environment of villages in Yixing has promoted the development of rural tourism in Yixing, which helps increase income for local residents. In recent years, the leisure sightseeing route in the Yinan mountainous area has become a provincial boutique route for leisure agriculture and rural tourism.

In order to better promote revitalization of rural areas, Yixing will focus on cultivating and constructing about 20 rural revitalization demonstration villages by the end of next year. The funds for rural revitalization demonstration villages will be given as a bonus for villages that performs best. The first prizes, which amount to 10 million yuan each, will be given to a maximum of five villages.