Jining in East China's Shandong province has made great strides in political virtues education for government officials and members of the Communist Party of China by making full use of local cultural resources, as well as by introducing high-quality courses.

As the hometown of Confucius and Mencius, both of whom were great ancient Chinese philosophers, Jining boasts rich traditional culture. The city started to develop higher education about political virtues as early as 2013 and set up an academy in April 2016.

A variety of courses centering on improving the capabilities and ethics of officials are provided at the academy. Students are inspired to learn from role models who have made great contributions to the city's development. A series of short videos have been produced to tell stories of everyday heroes.

The institute invited a group of scholars from the country's top universities and experts on Confucianism to give lectures, as well as to design more than 20 courses on traditional Chinese culture, in an effort to develop a new teaching model, said Kong Fanpeng, a lecturer at the academy.

To date, the school has offered over 1,100 courses to more than 61,000 students from academies in many provinces.