Hosts promote books via livestreams during the seventh Zhejiang Book Fair in Ningbo, East China's Zhejiang province. [Photo/WeChat account: nbfb0574]

The seventh Zhejiang Book Fair concluded in Ningbo, East China's Zhejiang province on Oct 11.

During the three-day period, the event's main venue, the Ningbo International Conference and Exhibition Center, welcomed 61,200 visitors. Books and cultural and creative products worth 4.53 million yuan ($696,923) were sold at the center.

An online bookstore launched by the province sold 311,000 books worth 25.18 million yuan on the first day. The online platform is slated to run until Oct 15.

This year marks the 1,200th anniversary of the founding of Ningbo. Local publishers exhibited 250 books at the fair, among which over 110 were related to the city's founding.

More than 450 reading promotional activities were held online and offline during the event.

The fair also saw the premiere of over 100 new books and lectures by renowned scholars and writers including Yi Zhongtian, Yan Chongnian, Liu Zhenyun and Li Er.

The number of digital content readers in the province rose by 8.6 percent year-on-year to 26.58 million in 2020, according to a report on digital reading in Zhejiang released at the fair on Oct 10.

In 2020, the revenue of the digital reading market in Zhejiang reached 3.717 billion yuan, accounting for about 10.6 percent of the nation's total.

Since its inception in 2015, the Zhejiang Book Fair has become a significant cultural event in China. Ningbo was chosen last year to become the event's permanent host city.