A forum focusing on city construction is held in the Zhoushan Archipelago New Area on May 24, attended by government officials, real estate enterprise representatives, and media workers. [Photo/WeChat account: zjzsrbs]

A forum revolving around city construction was held in the Zhoushan Archipelago New Area on May 24, according to local media reports.

The forum, broadcasted live online, attracted more than 1.45 million viewers. 

Participants including government officials, real estate enterprise representatives and media workers offered in-depth insights into the city's urban development, in particular the development of the real estate sector. 

Zhoushan aims to build itself into a garden city on the sea and the real estate industry will play an important role in the process.

Jia Shenghua, head of the real estate research center of Zhejiang University, pointed out how fast Zhoushan's real estate sector is growing and expressed optimism about its future. 

He called for more efforts to promote the integration of real estate and other industries and develop real estate projects focusing on services related to elderly care and tourism, among other things. 

Mao Yuejun, a representative from a local property enterprise, said he expected Zhoushan to step up efforts to integrate into the Yangtze River Delta region, promote itself to the outside world, and attract new residents. 

The real estate market in Zhoushan has showed strong resilience despite the epidemic. From January to April, sales of commercial property in Zhoushan stood at roughly 400,000 square meters, roughly the same as that of the same period in the previous year, official data show.