The role of Huzhou's transportation system in boosting common prosperity was recently ranked first in an appraisal of cities in East China's Zhejiang province.

Cities across Zhejiang were evaluated based on factors including urban-rural bus integration, average running speed of public vehicles in central urban areas during peak hours and the express logistics service coverage in administrative villages.

Huzhou is the first city in Zhejiang to have an urban-rural integrated bus service system. All buses operating in the city are completely powered by electricity and offer mobile payment systems.

In addition, the city has launched a fixed-fare system, meaning the fare is no longer decided by distance, and this has significantly slashed public transportation costs for the public.

Huzhou has in recent years been also working towards replacing diesel with electricity in port operations as part of efforts to reduce carbon emissions.

In June, it introduced the first fiscal subsidy policy for shore power usage in China, enabling nearly 20,000 sailors in the city to special electricity rates of 0.31 yuan ($0.05) per kilowatt-hour, which is lower than what ordinary residents pay.

The local government plans to invest 150 billion yuan in transportation during the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) period, with the aim of comprehensively improving connectivity among its administrative areas and with surrounding cities like Shanghai, Nanjing and Hangzhou.