Empowering rural governance with 'small grids'

The mediation room. [Photo by Liu Lei for chinadaily.com.cn]

Qihe county in Shandong province has in recent years been actively participating in grassroots social governance, guiding autonomous organizations such as village councils, councils for weddings and funerals, and public mediation councils to play their proper roles.

It has established mediation rooms and wedding halls at practice stations and arranged for professional volunteers to establish psychological counseling rooms and marriage and family mediation centers.

An ongoing case in the mediation room. [Photo by Liu Lei for chinadaily.com.cn]

Meanwhile, relying on publicity teams and the issues conveyed by callers of the 12345 citizen hotline, Qihe regularly carries out precise "hotline"-themed publicity.

Since the beginning of this year, it has solved more than 2,000 appeal issues and collected 5,540 opinions from local residents, empowering rural governance with "small grids." (Edited by Gong Jun)