With rows of locked shops, closed restaurants and nearly empty streets, the usually bustling area around West Lake, Hangzhou’s most popular tourist district, now looks a bit like a ghost town. The lakeside area – along with other parts of the city where the global leaders will stay or visit – has been closed off to the public, surrounded by roadblocks that are heavily guarded by police as the Chinese government prepares to host the Group of 20 summit. It is common practice around the world for countries hosting big events to beef up security and China has good reason to be vigilant right now because a suicide blast took place at the Chinese embassy in Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan last Tuesday. Can China seize chance at G20 to defend globalisation? However, many measures in Hangzhou have gone far beyond normal levels of caution. It’s just too much trouble to bring all the food materials through the security check every day, and there are not many customers now anyway Hangzhou restaurant manager By banning all civil society activities in the city, the G20 in China lacks the usual flavour associated with an international forum held to discuss global issues: no gay or lesbian rights group demonstrators, no radical environmentalist protests – and no monks praying for world peace. The lake area where many G20 leaders, including China’s President Xi Jinping, will stay has been placed under strict control. Only residents living inside the area or relevant G20 staff can gain access after passing through careful security checks and providing proof of their identity. The manager of one empty restaurant, next to West Lake, said the premises had stopped serving food and was now providing only drinks. “It’s just too much trouble to bring all the food materials through the security check every day, and there are not many customers now anyway,” she said. Can Xi keep geopolitics off the table at the G20? However, she had been told to keep the restaurant “open” by officials so that it would not look too bad. Many Hangzhou residents have already left the city after the local government provided a special week-long holiday, starting from Thursday, so that people would depart. On the first day of the holiday, people swarmed to the train station as if they were fleeing from some disaster, while carrying lots of big and small bags with them Taxi driver Lu Yadong “On the first day of the holiday, people swarmed to the train station as if they were fleeing from some disaster, while carrying lots of big and small bags with them,” said Lu Yadong, a taxi driver from Henan province, who has lived in the city for years and purchased his own home in the city’s suburbs. As for tourists, most have been told to stay away, but a small number of lucky ones were being allowed in at uncertain times during the day, as the authorities did not want to make the lake look completely empty, or “too quiet”, according to a local police official surnamed Fan. Multimedia interactive special: historic G20 meeting in Hangzhou - the leaders, their agenda and the redrawing of the world’s economic order Chen, a retiree from neighbouring Jiangsu province, managed to get close to the lake before the guards closed off the entrance at 4pm. As a frequent visitor to West Lake, Chen said he was amazed by how empty it was. He said his family’s car had been stopped three times as it passed through security checks on the way to Hangzhou. Theresa May unlikely to decide on Chinese-backed Hinkley Point nuclear plant as Brexit planning continues The first check, which took place when the car and its occupants crossed the provincial border into Zhejiang province, was the strictest, with every passenger ordered to get out of the car before being searched thoroughly, Chen said. However, the checks had made him feel less secure, he said. “The more you try to seal off places, the more it reflects a strong sense of insecurity,” Chen said. The unprecedented heavy levels of security in the city have generated jokes circulating on Chinese social media. One joke suggests a truly privileged and luxurious tour is not one to Phuket or the Maldives, but simply a normal walk beside West Lake. In a separate post, a photograph showing China’s foreign minister Wang Yi jogging in a closed-off area in Hangzhou went viral.