A colorful rural area in Jiaxing. [Photo/WeChat account: jxfabu]

Jiaxing in East China's Zhejiang province has been functioning as the granary of northern Zhejiang for thousands of years. Today, its farmers continue to enjoy a high quality of life with increasing incomes and more cultural services.

Technological progress has brought innovation to agriculture. Li Wenhu, director of a digital agricultural plant in Jiaxing, said that all of the 30 planting workshops in the digital plant have realized automatic control in temperature, light, moisture, and fertilizer.

"The digital plant can help us generate 10 million yuan ($1.55 million) in output per year and produce 1 million kilograms of high-quality vegetables," added Li.

In 2020, the per capita disposal income of rural residents in Jiaxing reached 39,801 yuan and the annual recurring revenue of all the villages in the city exceeded 1.2 million yuan.

At fairs in Jiaxing's rural areas, people can not only taste local produce, but also admire various folk arts, including mud-made stove paintings, shadow puppet shows, and cloth with colorful designs.

The urban-rural public library service in Jiaxing has been the pride of local residents. For example, the self-service library in Fengqiao village boasts more than 10,000 books and has over 100 seats.

To date, Jiaxing Library has established 52 branches in districts, subdistricts, towns, and villages. There are also 20 smart libraries, a traveling library, and hundreds of book circulation centers around the city.