A delegation from the Ministry of Finance and representatives of the World Bank recently concluded talks over a new rural construction loan project for 68 villages in Huangshan, East China’s Anhui province, according to the Huangshan people's government. A $100 million loan from the World Bank will be used for infrastructure construction, cultural heritage protection and exploitation, local industry development, and management enhancement.

With a history of more than 5,000 years, Huangshan, formerly named Huizhou, boasts more than 1,000 ancient villages. Praised as a “miniature of Chinese culture in the new era,” the ancient villages' architecture, layout and display all reflect the history, philosophy, literature, religion, art, and folk culture of their time.

Started in 2011 and listed as a supplementary project applying for a World Bank loan from 2012 to 2014 by the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Finance, the project aims to better protect the ancient villages and improve local infrastructure. It is also the first World Bank loan project for new rural construction.

The project has gone through six stages of pre-authentication, authentication, first-round preparation, second-round preparation, pre-evaluation and evaluation. The recently completed talk has confirmed total investment of 900 million yuan ($148 million), $100 million of which will come from the World Bank loan and the rest of which will be raised by the local government.

Edited by Michael Thai, Huang Pei