Five counties and county-level cities in North China's Shanxi province were listed as pilots in Alibaba’s grassroots e-commerce project, on May 29.

In October, 2014, Alibaba Group, a Chinese e-commerce giant, launched a grassroots initiative that plans to build 1,000 county-level operation centers and 100,000 village-level service stations within three to five years, with a total investment of 10 billion yuan ($1.61 billion).

30 Shanxi counties and county-level cities applied for the project, and five of them, namely Taigu county, Jixian county and Jiexiu county-level city in Jinzhong and Lvliang's Xiaoyi county-level city as well as Linfen's Houma county-level city, stood out after on-site investigation and evaluation carried by Alibaba.

The five pilots will take a leading role in the project. They will later sum up and promote their successful experiences to later participants.