BEIJING - China saw a boom in e-commerce in rural areas last year as the rural population increasingly went online for business and shopping.

Online retail volume in rural areas topped 1.24 trillion yuan ($194.1 billion) last year, up 39.1 percent year-on-year, according to the Ministry of Commerce.

Over 9.8 million online shops were based in villages by the end of 2017, up 20.7 percent year-on-year, creating over 28 million jobs.

Clothing, shoes, and bags are the most popular sub-sectors in rural e-commerce, while online tourism emerged as the fastest growing niche market expanding by 66.8 percent year-on-year.

Rural areas in eastern China still took the lion's share of the total rural e-commerce market, while northeastern villages posted the strongest growth last year.

E-commerce development in impoverished villages grew much faster than the national average, rising 52.1 percent year-on-year, according to the ministry.