Yonglian village in Zhangjiagang, a county-level city in Jiangsu province, boasts a pleasant living environment and beautiful scenery. [Photo/Official WeChat account: yongliancunchina]

Yonglian village in Zhangjiagang, a county-level city in Jiangsu province, was once an impoverished village located along the Yangtze River. Residents cultivated tidelands and built their houses along the river.

However, since the beginning of the reform and opening-up era in the 1970s, the village has experienced earth-shattering changes in its social and economic development. It developed its agricultural industrial chain over many years, transforming itself into a modern village.

Yonglian village has adapted its policies to local conditions to develop suitable industries and promote the high-quality development of the village-level collective economy.

The village has also rolled out an array of measures to promote the integrated development of primary, secondary, and tertiary industries, with industries such as iron and steel, logistics, finance, tourism, and modern agriculture growing steadily.

In 2019, the village's total business was valued at 75 billion yuan ($10.62 billion), and the average annual per capita income was 58,000 yuan. The village currently boasts a pleasant living environment and beautiful scenery, and it was named the National Ecological Village last year. 

Yonglian, a village in Nanfeng town, Zhangjiagang, Suzhou, East China's Jiangsu province, attaches great importance to the protection of the Yangtze River's natural environment. [Photo/Official WeChat account: yongliancunchina]