A landscape model of the venues for the 2021 China Flower Expo on Chongming Island. The construction, interrupted by the Lunar New Year and the COVID-19 outbreak, resumed on Feb 24. CHINA DAILY

Construction of the venues for the 2021 China Flower Expo on Chongming Island, Shanghai, resumed on Feb 24, with workers taking extra precautions such as temperature checks and health declarations due to the novel coronavirus outbreak.

The event is scheduled to take place from May 21 to July 2, 2021.

"Construction has finally restarted. We have to work harder to make up for lost time," says Fan Yongchao, a worker of Shanghai Construction Group.

The construction initially started in December before it was interrupted by the Chinese Lunar New Year and the COVID-19 outbreak which caused the local government to prolong the national holiday.

The first batch of workers called back to work on Feb 24 are those like Fan who are natives of Chongming Island, according to Mao Yiwei, the project manager of the main venue, called Rejuvenation.

"The construction is about half a month behind schedule so we have been coordinating with relevant parties to resume work while preventing our workers from getting infected with the contagious disease," Mao says. "We shall minimize the impact of the epidemic and make sure the construction is completed on time and safely."

This is the first time the island is hosting the event since its establishment in 1987. By hosting the event, the island hopes to develop a flower industry and flower-themed tourism as part of its transformation into a world-class ecological zone, according to the Shanghai government's 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20).

Li Zheng, director of the Chongming district, says that he expects the event to draw some 3 million visitors.

The exhibition, which will cover 588 hectares, will include the main expo park, service facilities to its north and Dongping town to the south.

The expo park will be divided into several sections, including a core display center, a main avenue, six pavilions and six gardens for flowers such as magnolias, plums, orchids, chrysanthemums, bamboo and lotuses.

Gu Ran, a coordinator at the construction site, says the expo's preparation committee has set up a group of officials from Chongming district to deal with the health emergency and help coordinate matters related to the resumption of construction activities.

Chen Qun, director of the office for the expo's preparation committee, says that the construction will be completed by the end of 2020.