Officials from both home and abroad have called to beef up global collaboration, to cope with the housing crisis that has been worsened by climate change and regional conflicts.

They made the remarks in a celebration event for World Cities Day in Weihai, Shandong province on Saturday under the theme of "Build People-Centered Cities for Better Life".

Initiated by the Chinese government in 2010, the World Cities Day falls annually on Oct 31. The world started to celebrate the Day in 2014, following its official endorsement by the United Nations General Assembly in 2013.

Addressing the opening ceremony for the Weihai event, Anacláudia Rossbach, the executive director of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat), lauded the Day as "a very crucial global platform from China to the world".