Nine days before the 33rd APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting opens in Shenzhen on November 18–19, the city's story is being told less through press releases than through pictures. Two official videos define that narrative: the host city's English-language film Gather in Shenzhen, Witness the Wonders, and the theme song released on November 1. Both are embedded below, in the original uploads.
“Gather in Shenzhen, Witness the Wonders”: The City's Official Invitation
Watch the original video on YouTube · Published by CGTN · 4 min 29 sec
The Host-City Theme Song: “Meet You Where Wonders Bloom”
Watch the original video on YouTube · Published by Shenzhen Story · 4 min 46 sec
Exactly one year after the film, on November 1, 2026, the city released its official host-city theme song, Meet You Where Wonders Bloom (在奇迹之城遇见你), together with this music video. Where the film is editorial — places, systems, evidence — the song is personal: it is addressed to a visitor, and its video keeps cutting between the city's scale and individual faces. The pairing is a deliberate two-step in host-city messaging. The film explains why the world is coming; the song sets the emotional register for their arrival. Together they form the phrase officials keep repeating this month: gather in Shenzhen, witness the wonders.
Nine Days Out: The Latest From Shenzhen
The meeting dates are confirmed and the schedule is now concrete. The APEC CEO Summit runs November 17–18, immediately before the leaders gather. State media coverage of the summit's preparations reports an expected 2,000-plus participants, a wider estimate than the roughly 1,000 delegates cited earlier in the year — a sign of how much business attention the Shenzhen gathering has attracted.
Everyday preparations continue to reach ordinary life. Shenzhen's human resources authority has encouraged flexible work for November 16–20, and a city briefing has outlined extra public transport capacity and temporary traffic controls around selected areas. In the streets, the change is visible rather than disruptive: APEC banners along principal avenues, evening light shows looping across the Civic Center axis, and volunteers rehearsing welcome procedures in metro stations.
For the full picture of dates, agenda and travel advice, our earlier reports remain current: the October 31 briefing on Shenzhen's preparations and the standing guide to the Shenzhen leaders' meeting. Readers planning to be in the city during Leaders' Week should allow extra time and follow Shenzhen Government and metro notices as final arrangements are published.
Why an English-Language Film Matters
Host cities have always produced promotional films. What is newer is the distribution logic: the primary audience for Shenzhen's film is not in Shenzhen. By publishing on YouTube in English — and letting partner outlets and economy-side channels circulate their own cuts — the host year treats international publics, not just delegations, as participants in the event.
That choice matches the year's theme, “Building an Asia-Pacific Community to Prosper Together,” more closely than any slogan could. A community begins with the ability to see one another clearly. The film's most persuasive shots are not the futuristic ones; they are the unglamorous ones — a technician checking equipment, a grandmother buying vegetables, children on a school run. The claim underneath the imagery is simple: the place where leaders will negotiate economic cooperation is, first, a place where ordinary life works. Nine days before the meeting, that is also the right frame for watching what happens next.
Questions about the official film and the meeting
- What is “Gather in Shenzhen, Witness the Wonders”?
- The official English-language promotional film for Shenzhen as host city of the 33rd APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting on November 18–19, 2026, published on CGTN's YouTube channel on November 1, 2025.
- Where can I watch the official film in English?
- In the embedded player above, from CGTN's original upload, with a direct link for readers who prefer YouTube itself.
- What is the APEC 2026 host-city theme song?
- Meet You Where Wonders Bloom (在奇迹之城遇见你), released with its music video on November 1, 2026, and carried by official city channels including Shenzhen Story.
- When is the leaders' meeting, and what else is scheduled?
- November 18–19, 2026, with the CEO Summit on November 17–18 and flexible-work encouragement for November 16–20.
Sources and original videos
- CGTN (YouTube): “Discover Shenzhen: Host city of the 2026 APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting” — official host-city film
- Shenzhen Story (YouTube): “Shenzhen Unveils APEC China 2026 Host-City Theme Song and Music Video”
- CCPIT: APEC CEO Summit 2026 dates and program
- Shenzhen human resources authority: October 17 flexible work notice for November 16–20 (Chinese)
- Shenzhen Government: transport and city service preparations (Chinese)
Reporting checked on November 9, 2026. Details of the film's production (shot count, number of residents featured, alternate cut lengths) reflect contemporaneous official-media reports; the embedded upload is the authoritative English version carried by CGTN. Embedding a video is not an endorsement of every statement in it; copyright remains with the original publishers and YouTube.
This is the official host-city film for the 33rd APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting, published on CGTN's main YouTube channel on November 1, 2025 — the day China's APEC “China Year” countdown formally began. Reports around its release describe a production built from 176 shots filmed across Shenzhen, with more than 100 residents appearing on screen, and a longer cut running about 4 minutes 45 seconds; the upload above is the 4:29 version carried by CGTN. The film works as the city's official invitation: instead of arguing that Shenzhen matters, it moves through places — the bay, the parks, the laboratories, the kitchens, the commuter crowds — and lets the texture of daily life make the case.
Watch for the film's central tension, which is also the theme of the host year: a city that grew from a border town into a technology hub in one generation, presented not as a spectacle to observe but as a place to gather. “Witness the Wonders” is an odd phrase for a city usually marketed on speed; the film spends its four minutes turning wonder into something concrete — faces, meals, machines and water — rather than drone shots alone.