A ceremony was held on Saturday to celebrate the opening of Shaanxi's first ecological house in Shijia village, Weinan city.

The house with 360 sq meters of floor area was designed by John Lin, an architecture professor at the University of Hong Kong, as a model that would encourage village residents to be less dependent on outside goods and services. It was financially supported by charitable funds of 350,000 yuan ($56,103) from the Hong Kong Luke Him Sau foundation.

The house has biogas, an eco-friendly toilet, pigsty, greenhouse, natural water tank, vegetable garden and solar energy supply. It is designed to be environmentally friendly and energy saving and to improve the living environment in rural areas.

The award-winning project was started in July 2009 and completed this year by the Shaanxi Provincial Women's Federation to promote the concept of energy saving and environmental protection in rural areas.