Jinan -- Authorities in the eastern province of Shandong invested more than 78 million yuan ($12 million) in 2017 in repairing villages.

More than 690 traditional villages with distinctive features have been renovated in the past year, according to the provincial administration of cultural heritage.

Zhou Xiaobo, deputy head of the administration, said that the efforts were part of a program to enhance protection over cultural relics.

"Traditional villages are an important carrier of local culture, and repair work was urgent," Zhou said.

The program will help pass on traditional culture and improve the local living environment, Zhou said.

China's traditional villages are disappearing as hundreds of millions of people move to the cities. The number of villages plummeted from 3.63 million to 2.71 million from 2000 to 2010.

A nationwide program to protect traditional villages began in 2012. In late 2015, each of the 2,555 villages on a national list of the most important traditional villages received 3 million yuan in subsidies from the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development.