A nursing worker provides home-based care service for an elderly people in Taicang, a county-level city in East China's Jiangsu province. [Photo/WeChat account: tcfbgw] 

Taicang, a county-level city in East China's Jiangsu province, has achieved outstanding accomplishments in improving people's wellbeing since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China held in 2012. 

The city has been listed among the happiest cities in China for 10 consecutive years, according to data released by Oriental Outlook magazine.

Taicang has been channeling more resources towards providing better elderly care services since 2020. 

The city now provides four- to 48-hour home-based care services to elderly people aged 80 years old or above a month. 

Gong Mingde, an 85-year-old municipal model worker, now enjoys 36-hour home-based care services every month. 

Taicang has established 206 day-care service centers in 158 villages and communities over the past 15 years and made steady progress in vocational and compulsory education during the same period. 

Over the past decade, Taicang has invested 22 billion yuan ($3.1 billion) in building and renovating 70 schools that can accommodate 38,700 students. 

The city has released three standards for dual vocational education. 

Taicang had in 2018 unveiled guidelines to improve primary-level healthcare services. 

To date, 10 community healthcare centers have been set up in the city. 

Taicang has also been stepping up efforts to advance the digitalization of healthcare services. For instance, locals can make an appointment with doctors, check their electronic health records and pay fees through apps or wechat platform. 

In addition, the city has been improving the basic medical insurance system over the past decade.

As of the end of 2021, 67,676 locals had been covered by the critical illness insurance system program and 325 million yuan of subsidy had been distributed.

A primary school in Taicang. [Photo/WeChat account: tcfbgw]

A ward of a community healthcare center in Taicang. [Photo/WeChat account: tcfbgw]