A reading room in Xintai, a county-level city in Tai'an, East China's Shandong province. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Xintai, a county-level city in Tai'an, East China's Shandong province has in recent years been ramping up efforts to boost the high-quality development of public cultural services.

One of the achievements is the construction of a 3.5-million-yuan ($499,450) cultural post in Xizhangzhuang town of the city. 

Today, an academy for painting and calligraphy at the post regularly holds activities such as exhibitions of artworks created by local residents, and organizes members to create spring couplets and paintings to celebrate Spring Festival. 

It also holds cultural activities during other traditional festivals such as Dragon Boat Festival and Mid-Autumn Festival.

The post has held more than 100 cultural activities this year.

Authorities have been exploring new cooperation modes to provide better cultural services to local residents since the founding of the cultural post in 2019. For example, they have established cooperative ties with an educational institution that provides personal training services for kids. Four hundred students received free training this summer vacation.

Authorities have also held art performances every Friday to enrich the spiritual and cultural lives of local residents, converted the first and second floors of the post into a reading room that has a collection of more than 10,000 books, and built a 35,000-square-meter cultural and sports venue that is equipped with facilities for playing basketball, badminton and table tennis.