Abstract: To scientifically evaluate the construction level of livable and beautiful countryside, and explore its practical pathways, taking Jiangsu Province as an example, an evaluation system based on the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) was developed, covering five dimensions-ecological livability environment, basic public services, industrial economic development, comprehensive rural governance, and harmonious rural culture-with 14 element layers and 57 indicators. Combined with the fuzzy evaluation method and the expert scoring method, 28 typical villages in 13 cities were empirically evaluated. The results showed that the overall level of harmonious and beautiful countryside development in Jiangsu Province was upper-middle (mean score of 3.944 3). The ratings exhibited a "middle-dominant, tail-thin" distribution, with high-level villages accounting for only 7.14%. Among the five dimensions, industrial economic development had the largest weight (0.408 7), whereas rural governance was the main bottleneck. The development levels of Southern Jiangsu, Central Jiangsu, and Northern Jiangsu decreased in sequence but with narrowing gaps, and each region exhibited differentiated characteristics in terms of industries, public services, and ecology. The study further summarized seven types of construction models, and put forward suggestions from the aspects of urban-rural coordination, industrial quality improvement, and rural customs cultivation, in order to provide theoretical and practical reference for similar regions in the country.

Key words: harmonious and beautiful countryside, evaluation index system, Analytic Hierarchy Process（AHP）, construction level, development model, Jiangsu Province