Yixing riding digital wave to revitalize rural areas

Yixing, a county-level city administered by Wuxi in East China's Jiangsu province, has been exploring the construction of digital villages in recent years.

The city has been making efforts to market its abundant special agricultural products on e-commerce platforms, leading to the creation of the Ali digital village Yixing warehouse.

Local farmers can put their produce in the warehouse, which can deliver the agricultural products in two minutes after receiving an order from an online platform.

The warehouse helps rural e-commerce businesses reduce theirs logistics costs by 15 percent and storage costs by 10 percent.

According to Jiang Mingyu, general manager of Yixing City Travel E-Commerce Co Ltd, Yixing-grown tea leaves, rice, lily bulbs, and other produce have seen stable increases in sales volume due to online sales.

Yixing has also published information about local usable land and vacant residential buildings online to attract investment and develop rural tourism.

In addition, agricultural industrial parks and agricultural cooperatives in the city have employed digital technologies, including big data, internet of things, and artificial intelligence, to manage farmland and vegetable greenhouses.