A bird's-eye view of Taicang, a county-level city in East China's Jiangsu province. [Photo/WeChat account: tcfbgw]

Taicang, a county-level city in East China's Jiangsu province, made the 2023 list of the top 100 counties in China, according to a report released on May 12. 

The report, which was released by the Beijing One City Economic Consulting Center, a think tank dedicated to providing counseling services for the high-quality development of Chinese counties, evaluated 1,866 county-level administrative regions in seven aspects: economic strength, innovation potential, urban-rural coordinated development, green development, openness, sharing, and security.

Taicang's GDP in 2022 was 165.36 billion yuan ($23.74 billion), a year-on-year increase of 2.2 percent, while the combined output value of enterprises above designated size stood at 311 billion yuan, up 5.1 percent year-on-year.

Taicang Port handled more than 8 million TEUs in 2022, and it is currently home to more than 800 German enterprises.

These achievements are largely due to efforts by authorities to boost its high-quality development.

Efforts include channeling more resources towards developing real economy, optimizing the industrial system, adopting digital technologies to promote industrial transformation and upgrading, launching major projects, and developing modern agriculture.

Authorities also rolled out a series of favorable policies to create a friendly environment for pursuing innovation, starting businesses and attracting high-caliber talent.

In addition, the local government has been making efforts to develop rural tourism as part of efforts to drive common prosperity endeavors.

A bird's-eye view of Fuqiao town in Taicang, a county-level city in East China's Jiangsu province [Photo/WeChat account: tcfbgw]

Donglin village in Taicang, a county-level city in East China's Jiangsu province [Photo/WeChat account: tcfbgw]