BEIJING, Aug. 25 -- China has started the renovation of 46,600 old urban residential communities in the first seven months of this year, official data showed Thursday.

China plans to renovate a total of 53,000 old urban residential communities this year, in an effort to make cities more livable, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development said.

The renovation projects put into construction in the January-July period accounted for 87.9 percent of the annual target, and are expected to benefit 7.95 million households in the country, according to the ministry.

As of the end of July, nine provincial-level regions, including Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Shanghai, have put all of their planned renovation projects into construction.