Xiemaqiao village in Kunshan's Qiandeng town, Jiangsu province, was listed among the third batch of Chinese traditional villages, bringing the total number of the province's ancient villages on the list to 26.

Traditional villages refer to those with physical and intangible cultural heritages and are of high historic, cultural, scientific, social and economic value.

The listed villages shall make plans for environmental protection, including protecting intangible cultural heritage from overexploitation, to receive financial support from the central government.

A total of 994 villages in the country were included in the third list, which was jointly released by the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, the Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of Finance, the Administration of Cultural Heritage, the Ministration of Land and Resources, and the National Tourism Administration.