With its bright blue exterior surrounded by green plants, an eye-catching nucleic acid sampling station debuted at the Nantong sports and exhibition center on May 5 – located in the Chongchuan district of Nantong city in East China's Jiangsu province – and began trial operations.

Two friendly teddy bears on the roof of a new station greet people who go for nucleic acid tests. [Photo/WeChat account: chongchuanonline]

Consisting of two containers, the first floor of the site is used for sampling, while the second can serve as a rest area and office, to adjust its services to meet the daily demand.

Some 234 of these easy-to-use sampling stations will come into service in the district in succession from May 10, open to the public for free.

The Huanxi cultural square nucleic acid sampling site is located at the heart of Nantong's old urban area, as an important part of the public service system in the Haohe River scenic spot.

In addition to sampling, the site can also offer services such as mobile phone charging and lost and found.

As Nantong's first easy-to-use nucleic acid sampling site set up in a national 5A-level scenic spot, the Huanxi cultural square station will serve over 10,000 locals. [Photo/WeChat account: chongchuanonline]

People queue up to take a test at the MixC sampling station. [Photo/WeChat account: chongchuanonline]

Chongchuan district has cooperated with the municipal big data administration in the endeavor. It will use high-tech means such as big data to launch a real-time online "heat map" of sampling stations. Through it, citizens can find nearby sites with a smaller flow of people, so as to achieve a high efficiency.