Dushiyuan village looks especially charming in the snow. [Photo/WeChat account: gotonantong]

Dushiyuan village in Shigang town, Tongzhou district was among the 248 villages to win the title of "beautiful village for leisure" in 2020, according to a list released by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs on Aug 28.

The village, which is the only winner to be located in Nantong, is named after a temple built during the Tang Dynasty (618-907) and is famous for its fishing culture, which three poems written by Wen Tianxiang, a patriot and poet in the Song Dynasty (960-1279) featured.

The village, with a drainage area of 7.84 square kilometers, has taken advantage of its river system to develop strong agricultural and tourism industries in recent years.

It has reclaimed nearly 187 hectares of land to build three family farms, plant 60 hectares of forest and develop rural projects over an area of 66.7 hectares. It has also developed a variety of specialty foods, such as fermented bean curd, dried shrimp, Jiaogao cake and roasted goose.

In 2018, the village received 142,000 tourists and brought in 3.62 million yuan ($524,538) in tourism revenue.

Next, the village plans to build an online-offline rice trading center and renovate its infrastructure, including roads, waterways, toilets and garbage disposal system, to build itself into a national 3A-level tourist attraction and become a model of rural development, said Zhen Yongzhong, Party secretary of the village.