Pingyao recognized for protecting traditional villages

Pingyao county in North China's Shanxi province was recently named a demonstration county for the continued protection and utilization of traditional villages in 2022.

The evaluation was carried out by the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Housing and Urban-rural Development to explore effective ways to protect and utilize traditional villages.

The Ministry of Finance will offer fixed rewards and subsidies to demonstration counties, among which subsidy benchmarks for the eastern, central and western demonstration counties are 30 million yuan ($4.72 million), 40 million yuan, and 50 million yuan, respectively.

In addition, a corresponding reward and subsidy coefficient will be given out based on the number of traditional villages in the demonstration counties: the subsidy coefficients of demonstration counties with 5 to 9, 10 to 19, and 20 or more traditional villages are 1, 1.25, and 1.5, respectively. The subsidy fund for each demonstration county is the corresponding subsidy benchmark multiplied by the subsidy coefficient.

Pingyao county is currently home to four traditional villages under protection. In addition to Pingyao, the province's Pingding county was also named a demonstration county this year.