The upgraded Ailou Road opens to the traffic, bringing a better life to the locals of Ailing village. [Photo/ntfabu.com]

Ailou Road, the main road of Ailing village in Hai'an – a county-level city administered by Nantong in East China's Jiangsu province – used to be a dirty thoroughfare covered with gravel, which hindered the sale of its agricultural products.

But then Chu Ruilong, the general Party branch secretary of Ailing village, raised funds and made plans to renovate the road when he took office in 2018.

Nowadays, the 3.2-kilometer-long Ailou Road is covered with thick asphalt. Its widest point was widened from the original width of less than 3 meters to 6 m.

"It is much more convenient than before to send and pick up my grandchildren from kindergarten, which used to take at least half an hour and now takes only 10 minutes or so," said Hu Lanfang, a local of Ailing village.

After the new road opened, Hu started a building materials business and now has an annual income of about 200,000 yuan ($30,962).

Ailing village has about 239 hectares of arable land, all of which are cultivated to a high standard. Five family farms are located in the village and Jin's family farm – owned by Jin Chenghong – is one of them.

Jin's family farm rented 46.7 hectares of land from peasant farmers to cultivate wheat. Jin Chenghong said his family farm supports 20 peasant households from surrounding areas to work there. In addition to land rent, the farm hands also earn salaries. As a result, each household has boosted their incomes by 4,000-5,000 yuan a year.

According to village Party branch secretary Chu Ruilong, the village has rented out 173 ha of its land, with the farms employing over 300 people, taking the village-run economy to a higher level.

At the start of 2018, the collective income of Ailing village was less than 400,000 yuan, but with the improvements it had risen to 790,000 yuan by the end of 2020.

With the increasing income, the village planted seedlings, installed street lights and established a garden.

Last year, Ailou Road was rated as a provincial Four Good Rural Road – fulfilling the qualifying standards of good construction, good management, good maintenance and good operations that benefit the rural residents.