Rural roads in Qidong, a county-level city in Nantong, have been significantly improved. [Photo/ntfabu.com]

Over the past few years, Qidong, a county-level city in Nantong, has been constructing roads in rural areas, over 4,000 kilometers of which have been completed, costing more than 1 billion yuan ($141.21 million).

Crash barriers have been set up on all dangerous sections of the roads and traffic signs have been improved. The roads connect with national, provincial and county-level highways.

The road network will make it easier to promote local agricultural products. To date, 90 percent of farmland in Zhiliang village has been offered up for intensive farming, and farmers can receive around 6,000 yuan in land rent every year, according to the secretary of the village's Party committee.

The peonies at a cooperative in Xinglong village are stunning when in full bloom and can be used to produce seed oil, but few people have paid attention to them in the past.

After the roads were constructed and rural tourism promoted, around 300,000 visitors were attracted to the peony festival last year. In addition, local villagers also decided to build high-quality homestays to boost local tourism.

Wuxing village, which is located near the entrance of Hai'an-Qidong Expressway, has built a rural complex, with 100 million yuan invested in the first phase. The project is expected to provide villagers with a number of job opportunities and increase their incomes.