The freehand sketching contest hosted by Kunshan Tourism Resort wins the online-popularity award of the 2016 Suzhou Cyberspace Culture Season. [Photo from WeChat account kslydjq]

A freehand sketching contest launched by Kunshan Tourism Resort this spring scooped the Online Popularity Award at an awards ceremony held on the closing night of the 2016 Suzhou Cyberspace Culture Season on Oct 25.

The awards ceremony was held to recognize the most innovative and popular online cultural events held in Suzhou this year. The huge response generated by Kunshan's sketching contest made it a clear favorite and deserving winner.

The contest caught the imaginations of netizens in April when it asked people to submit their own hand-drawn sketches depicting the scenery and culture of Kunshan. Freehand sketching has become wildly popular among young people in China in recent years, with creative drawings often going viral on social media.

After receiving 140 sketches during the 40-day submission period, Kunshan held an online vote through the popular online community Tianya.cn to decide the winner, and the response was amazing. The vote received more than 500,000 votes and around 1 million page views.

After voting finally closed, the contest handed out a number of awards, including a first prize, a best visual-effect award, an online popularity award, a Jiangnan style award and five nominee awards.

A Zhouzhuang canal scene from a carved window wins the best visual-effect award of the freehand sketching contest. [Photo/tianya.cn]

The best visual-effect award went to a work based on the scenery of the picturesque water town Zhouzhuang, featuring a canal running through the area framed by one of the town's signature carved stone window frames.

The award ceremony brought an end to the Suzhou Cyberspace Culture Season, which since July has organized 58 cultural events on seven different themes, including entrepreneurship, public welfare, creativity and civilization.