Over 1 Million Shenzhen Residents Pledge to Go Car-Free for Trump-Xi APEC Week

Photo: Pathfinbird, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (file photo, Dec. 2025). Shenzhen’s Civic Center and Futian central business district, seen from Lianhuashan Park.

More than 1 million Shenzhen residents have signed up to leave their cars at home during the week of the APEC summit, as the southern Chinese city races through the final stage of Shenzhen APEC 2026 preparations ahead of a leaders’ meeting at which President Trump is scheduled to see Chinese leader Xi Jinping. Crews have been working overnight on roads and landscaping near the venues, and the city is phasing in traffic controls before leaders of the 21 member economies of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation arrive for the Nov. 18-19 meeting.

Night crews near the Futian venues

A South China Morning Post reporter saw construction crews working late at night in downtown Shenzhen, the newspaper reported on Monday, Nov. 2. At one intersection about a kilometer from the APEC venues in Futian district, at least 50 workers were laying pebbles and planting trees, and the main road leading to the newly built Shenzhen International Communication Centre was being repaved. Lamp posts along the way carried “APEC China” flags.

The summit venues sit in Futian, the city’s government and business district, seen in the file photo at the top of this article, which shows the district’s skyline rather than the convention center itself.

A city asked to stay off the roads

The city’s state-run English-language newspaper, Shenzhen Daily, reported on Monday that more than 1 million people had pledged by Oct. 30 to suspend use of their private cars from Nov. 16 to 20 under a voluntary “Green Travel, Smooth Traffic” campaign. It said sign-ups passed 20,000 in the first three hours after the campaign opened on Oct. 15 and reached 500,000 by Oct. 24. !Unverified claim, Shenzhen Daily (Chinese state media) The figures count registrations, not cars actually kept off the road. Participants receive stickers showing the black-faced spoonbill, an endangered migratory bird found in Shenzhen Bay, and can collect them through Dec. 31, the paper said.

At an Oct. 15 press conference, city officials urged employers to let staff work from home during summit week, or to stagger hours where on-site work is needed, and offered discounted public transit fares and other perks to keep residents off the roads, the Post reported at the time.

Shenzhen traffic police said the restrictions would come in stages. Temporary limits on freight and hazardous-goods trucks would come first, followed from late October to early November by controls tied to specific areas and times, and some main roads, elevated roads, tunnels and intersections may become one-way or close temporarily, according to China News Service, which reported on the briefing. !Unverified claim, China News Service (Chinese state media) TBR could not confirm whether street-by-street closure notices had been issued as of Monday.

Drone ban and translation devices

Drones are banned across the city, new hotels have opened and taxi drivers carry translation devices covering nearly 150 languages, the Post reported on Oct. 17. It said the gathering is seen as especially high-stakes because Xi, Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin are all expected to attend. Putin’s attendance has not been confirmed.

Shenzhen borders Hong Kong, and cross-border travel through the city is rising. The Liantang port, one of its Hong Kong crossings, handled 28.57 million traveler crossings this year through Oct. 31, up 14.8% from a year earlier, including 277,000 by foreigners, China News Service reported, citing border inspection officials. !Unverified claim, China News Service (Chinese state media)

Trump’s route: Manila, then Shenzhen

The White House said President Trump would attend the summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Manila on Nov. 16 and then travel to China for APEC, the New York Post reported on Oct. 11. TBR’s ASEAN and Southeast Asia coverage tracks the Manila leg. The Post in Hong Kong reported on Nov. 1 that Trump “will meet his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping for the third time this year” in Shenzhen, and quoted the first lady’s office as saying, “First lady Melania Trump is not scheduled to attend the events in person.” TBR follows the trip and other actions of the Trump administration on its presidency tracker.

China announced in December 2025 that the leaders’ meeting would be held in Shenzhen on Nov. 18-19, according to a Xinhua report carried on the Chinese government’s website. !Unverified claim, Xinhua (Chinese state media)

What happens this week

Before the leaders arrive, APEC’s foreign and trade ministers will meet on Tuesday, Nov. 3. Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Commerce Minister Wang Wentao will co-chair the 37th APEC Ministerial Meeting by video link from Beijing, China’s Foreign Ministry said. More on the region is on TBR’s Asia-Pacific news page.

Sources

• South China Morning Post: Traffic curbs, tree planting as Shenzhen’s APEC plans enter final phase
• Shenzhen Daily: car-free pledge campaign passes 1 million
• South China Morning Post: Shenzhen offers discount fares, other perks to keep residents off roads
• China News Service: Shenzhen APEC traffic measures
• New York Post: Trump to visit the Philippines next month for ASEAN summit
• Chinese Foreign Ministry: 37th APEC Ministerial Meeting announcement

Additional sources

• South China Morning Post: China’s Shenzhen ready to host Xi, Trump and Putin
• South China Morning Post: Melania Trump unlikely to travel to APEC summit in China
• China News Service: Liantang port passes 100 million traveler inspections
• Xinhua via gov.cn: APEC leaders’ meeting dates announced